BALTIMORE -- It was just another overnight shift for Damon Davis, a road construction inspector who was supervising repairs on Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge -- until the deck beneath his feet started crumbling.

He ran for his life and, miraculously, made it to safety moments before the bridge collapsed into the water below.

"You can visualize, as he is coming forward, the bridge is collapsing behind him," said Baltimore attorney Billy Murphy, whose firm is representing Davis in a liability case against the owner and manager of the Dali, the massive container ship that veered off course and crashed into one of the bridge's supporting columns in March.

The attorneys held a news conference Thursday to announce their upcoming claim.

Six members of the road crew whose work Davis was inspecting that night died in the collapse and another narrowly survived falling from the bridge. Their job that night was filling potholes on the bridge deck.