Port of Bellingham to pay $16 million to injured ferry worker

SEATTLE – The Port of Bellingham has been ordered to pay $16 million to an Alaska ferries employee who was injured while operating a faulty loading ramp at the port’s cruise terminal.

The Seattle Times reported that a federal jury issued its decision Friday in the case brought by Shannon Adamson, who suffered life-threatening injuries in the 2012 incident. The jury found the port was negligent for failing to fix a control panel that operated the passenger-loading ramp.

Adamson sued the port in 2014 after the ramp she had been adjusting fell nearly 20 feet. The suit alleges the port knew the ramp had a defective control panel following a similar incident in 2008.

The port’s lawyers had argued that Adamson knew she was insufficiently trained to operate the passenger ramp.