NOTE: Based on new information, this story has been updated to reflect a different range of amounts Andrea Laing could receive.

A Portland jury on Monday awarded $15 million to a woman whose right leg was severed by a MAX train as she tried to run across the tracks to catch a train on the other side.

The amount Andrea “Amy” Laing actually will receive could possibly range from as little as $682,800 or to as much as $8.7 million, under various Oregon laws applying to the case.

Laing was wearing a hoodie when she was struck by a eastbound MAX train at the Elmonica/Southwest 170th station in Beaverton on Nov. 16, 2015. Although it was disputed at trial, TriMet argued she was wearing earbuds that were playing loud music, as evidenced by an emergency responder who picked them up off the tracks after Laing was hit.

During a 10-day trial, TriMet argued that Laing tried to dart across the tracks without looking both ways first, in a rush to catch a westbound train that had already reached the station. The eastbound train struck her.

In addition to an above-the-knee amputation, Laing also suffered broken ribs, fractures of facial bones and many internal injuries, including damage to her spleen that required its removal.

She spent five weeks in the hospital. A surgeon said she likely survived the catastrophic injuries only because of her youthful age. She was 23 at the time.

Laing’s attorneys sought a protective order from Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Ramras to bar the public release of the TriMet surveillance video of the accident. Ramras granted the order. The video was repeatedly played in court, and The Oregonian/OregonLive took still frame photos of it.

Laing sought more than $27 million in damages.

She contended TriMet and MAX operator Gabe Sutherland were significantly at fault for her injuries.

Jurors found TriMet 43 percent at fault, the MAX operator 15 percent at fault and Laing 42 percent at fault.

Half a dozen jurors who spoke with The Oregonian/OregonLive after the verdict said TriMet failed to listen to recommendations on ways to improve pedestrian safety in a report written by an engineering firm many years earlier.

Jurors criticized TriMet for failing to install features such as a “swing gate” that would force pedestrians to stop and open the gate before stepping onto the tracks. It could increase the likelihood that pedestrians would look both ways, they said.

Jurors said TriMet also could better alert pedestrians when more than one train is pulling into the station: An electronic sign that flashes the word “Trains” with arrows pointing in both directions would serve as an eye-catching warning, they said.

Even so, jurors also found Laing was at fault for failing to adequately look out for the incoming train and take reasonable safety precautions.

But they didn’t fault Laing for wearing a hoodie, given Oregon’s cold and wet weather. They noted the video surveillance showed a large hood -- and they didn’t have evidence that it blocked her field of vision.

Jurors also said TriMet hadn’t proven that Laing was listening to loud music. Surveillance video didn’t show whether she was wearing her earbuds. What’s more, even if she had been wearing earbuds, there’s no evidence that they prevented her from hearing the sound of the train’s horn, jurors said.

Laing’s attorneys, Randolph Pickett and Sonia Montalbano, criticized the train operator for not braking sooner and not sounding the horn earlier. An expert said Sutherland began to blast the horn 1.9 second before impact.

On the morning of the accident, Laing was walking toward the MAX station at 9:12 a.m. when she saw the westbound train -- the one she wanted to ride to work -- had pulled into the station. She began to run. An instant before getting hit by the eastbound train, she appears to see it and rapidly try to slow down. But she couldn’t in time and was hit by the corner of the approaching train.

Laing was run over by the train, which took 10 seconds to come to a complete stop.

Laing doesn’t have a memory of the accident. She repeatedly left the courtroom when video was shown to jurors or when witnesses described what they saw and the aftermath. TriMet faulted Laing for not heeding warning signs or features designed to get pedestrians to “Stop, look and listen.”

“You’d seen the ‘Look Both Ways’ sign?” TriMet’s attorney, Michael Shin, asked Laing.

“Yes,” Laing testified.

“You’d seen the tactile strip, the white strip, with bumps?” Shin asked.

“I saw them every day,” Laing said. “It became habitualized.”

“And you saw the ‘Don’t Stand Here’ sign in the middle of the tracks?” Shin asked.

“Yes,” Laing responded.

Andrea "Amy" Laing testified during a nine-day trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court in February 2019.

Deborah Kay Anderson, who was stopped in her car waiting for the train to pass, testified she saw Laing pick up her pace as she stepped onto the tracks.

“It looked like ‘poof.’ She was gone, she disappeared,” Anderson said. “It looked like it sucked her underneath.”

Anderson said she and a friend who was riding in her car called 911 and rushed to Laing’s aid. Anderson described the train operator as distressed.

“He came out of the train and fell to his knees,” Anderson said. “He just turned into a puddle, crying sadness.”

The jury awarded $5 million in economic damages for lost wages and past and future medical costs, and $10 million in noneconomic damages for Laing’s pain and suffering. Because the jury found TriMet and its MAX operator 58 percent at fault, Laing’s attorneys likely will argue the agency must pay out 58 percent of the $15 million, or $8.7 million.

But TriMet likely will argue the most it’s on the hook for is $682,800. That’s the amount Oregon law caps TriMet’s liability at, under designated limits for public agencies such as TriMet. The tort claim limit law, however, is hotly debated. Higher courts have been asked to rule on its constitutionality.

TriMet hasn’t decided yet whether it will appeal.

“TriMet appreciates the work of the jury and thanks the jurors for their service,” the agency said in a statement. “We will consider possible next steps in this case.”

Laing’s attorneys declined comment.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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