Lone Survivor of Baltimore Bridge Collapse Says He Lives with Guilt After Nephew Died in the Water

More than three months after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, the sole survivor of the tragedy is speaking out for the first time about his harrowing experience and the guilt he lives with every day after watching his family and friends die around him.

Julio Cervantes Suarez was one of seven construction workers who had been fixing potholes on the bridge on the early hours of March 26, minutes before the 947-foot-long Singapore-flagged Dali cargo ship crashed into the structure and sent it — and the workers — tumbling into the Patapsco River.

Sitting down with NBC News' Tom Llamas, the 37-year-old father recalled that he and his colleagues, which included his nephew, brother-in-law and longtime friends, were in their cars on a break when the crash occurred. (An eighth person on the bridge was able to get away without falling into the water.)

One by one, Cervantes Suarez saw the vehicles vanish into the water below, starting with his nephew, Carlos Daniel Hernández, whom he considered like a son, he told the network.

Knowing he was next, he began to pray. "I thanked God for family he gave me," he said in Spanish in an interview that aired on the Today show on Thursday, July 11. "I asked him to take care of my wife and kids. And I asked for forgiveness for everything I’ve done."

Cervantes Suarez's truck fell nearly 18 stories in the cold waters of the river. Luckily, the vehicle's windows were manual, which allowed him to roll one down and escape.

From there, the construction worker — who didn't know how to swim — made his way to a piece of the bridge that was protruding from the river. He was wearing his helmet with a flashlight on it that would ultimately help rescue workers discover him.

His co-workers, however, died. In addition to Cervantes Suarez's nephew, José Mynor López, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval and Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez were all fatal victims of the incident.

Cervantes Suarez yelled for them as he waited in the water but knew they were gone. "I started to call out to each one of them by name; no one answered me," he remembered in his NBC interview.

Asked by Llamas why he thinks he survived, Cervantes Suarez said, "I don't know," but he stressed that he believes there's a bigger plan for him. "I think maybe there is still a goal for me,” he told the network.

He's haunted by the events of what happened, he said: "I relive it all the time: the minutes before the fall and when I’m falling."

He particularly feels guilt over his nephew's death, blaming himself for telling Hernández to rest -

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in his own car as they went on break. "If I had told him to come with me in my truck, maybe it would have been different," said Cervantes Suarez. "Maybe he would be here with us."

Since the collapse, the Dali cargo ship’s Singapore-based owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and operator Synergy Marine Pte Ltd. have petitioned a Maryland court to limit their liability to $43.67 million, according to the Associated Press, citing an 1851 maritime law that caps liability at a value of the vessel’s remains after a casualty.

The companies have both also sought "exoneration from liability" related to the collapse and claim in court papers "that they have valid defenses to any and all such claims."

The city of Baltimore has pushed back on that, saying in an April court filing obtained by ABC News that Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd. should be liablefor the damage done in the deadly disaster, blaming it on the "unseaworthiness of the Dali and the negligence of the vessel’s crew and shoreside management."

Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine previously expressed their condolences to the victims in a joint statement in March, saying then, "We extend our deepest sympathies to everyone affected and their families."

"We deeply regret this incident and the problems it has caused for the people of Baltimore and the region’s economy that relies on this vitally important port," Synergy Marine said in another statement in March.

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Cervantes Suarez and the families of the workers killed in the bridge collapse are planning to take legal action against the companies involved with the Dali cargo ship — which, according to a preliminary reportreleased in May by the National Transportation Safety Board, lost power and propulsion as it was leaving the Baltimore Harbor.

"The boat was not seaworthy," Cervantes Suarez's attorney L. Chris Stewart told NBC News. "Everybody that was involved with this boat is responsible for destroying these eight families’ lives. It’s an American tragedy."

Cervantes Suarez "ingested all of that bad water. He has torn meniscus. He has other kind of psychological problems he's going to deal with forever," added Stewart's colleague, attorney Justin D. Miller. "This will never go away and he still has a family to take care of and now a bunch of other people from other families that he has to take care of as well."

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