After an Alaska Marine Highway Systems (AMHS) employee was seriously injured at work because of a faulty loading ramp in 2012, a federal jury decided that her employer should be held responsible and should have to compensate the worker for her injuries and their negligence- in a big way.

Shannon Adamson worked as a mate on a ferry operated by AMHS and was operating a passenger ramp that allows passengers to get on and off. As she was adjusting the ramp at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal’s control panel, the ramp fell almost 20 feet on her and she suffered severe injuries. The incident punctured both her lungs, lacerated her liver, and gave her multiple fractures and a head injury. She was in the hospital for 10 days.

She sued the Port of Bellingham, saying that they knew the control panel was faulty and there had been a previous accident in 2008 at the port that officials knew about and failed to fix. An engineering firm had been asked to write a report, the “Geiger Report” after the 2008 accident. They had noticed the problems with the control panel and alerted the port to potential hazards and fixes. Though the port showed the report to the state’s Risk Management Division it was not shown to the Alaska Marine Highway System, who operates ferries like the one she worked on and leases the right to dock them at ports.

Adamson alleged that they purposefully ignored the warnings in the report and they failed to train employees on how to use the ramp. The port argued that Adamson was at fault because she willingly operated the ramp knowing she was not properly trained.

The jury decided that the port was negligent, and ordered them to pay Adamson $16 million dollars for lost income, estimated loss of future income, past and future pain and suffering, and medical bills. They plan to appeal.

-The Seattle Times