Dive Brief:

• In Marion County, Ore., the estate of a woman who died of hypothermia in a pit on a construction site on a February night in 2011 is suing two contractors and the state Department of Transportation for $715,000.
• The suit charges that it was negligent not to have some barrier around a pit at the site where M.J. Hughes Construction, Inc., and GeoStabilization International, LLC, were reconstructing the dock for the Buena Vista ferry across the Willamette River.
• Joy Groh's car got stuck in the area and she got out, the suit says, then fell into the pit, broke her ankle and died there.

Dive Insight:

The accident happened either late on Feb. 2 or early on Feb. 3, 2011, and Groh's body was found the morning after. The lawsuit argues that the defendants should have known that the pit was a danger and should have done something to make it safe.