Bowling Green paving company Scotty’s Contracting and Stone has been directed by a judge to pay more than $22 million to the victims of a 2012 road construction accident in Barren County that left one person dead and three others seriously injured.

Barren Circuit Judge John Alexander entered an order on March 11 denying a motion from Scotty’s to vacate the judgment the court entered following a bench trial last year, setting damages to the victims in the amount of $22,583,729.

The legal action stems from an Oct. 8, 2012, incident in which a retaining wall under construction during the widening of Ky. 90 in Barren County collapsed.

Highway construction worker Kenneth Decker, 63, was killed and three other workers – Jamie Groce, John McIntosh and Steve Nelson – were seriously injured.

The workers were employed at the time by VanMeter Contracting and were all on top of the wall working as concrete was being poured into a metal form when the wall rolled over.

Decker’s widow, Velma Decker, and the three surviving workers filed suit in Barren Circuit Court in 2013 that named Scotty’s, VanMeter and several Kentucky Department of Highways officials as defendants.

Under the terms of Scotty’s contract with the state for the road project, Scotty’s is required to pay the entire judgment.

At a bench trial held last year to determine liability and damages, Dr. Harold Deathredge, a highway construction specialist retained as an expert witness appearing on behalf of the plaintiffs, testified that there were no telescoping poles or concrete shoring at the site of the retaining wall to anchor it in place, making its failure an “engineering certainty,” court records show.

Attorney Mike Breen, representing the plaintiffs, said that Deathredge’s examination of what happened showed that nothing was done at the job site to make sure that the workers operated under safe conditions.

The surviving workers also testified about their experiences at the job site and the ways in which their injuries have affected their daily lives.

“The individual clients themselves gave the most high-impact testimony that I have seen in my 40-year career, and I think that Judge Alexander found that to be very persuasive,” Breen said.

During the 11-year pendency of the lawsuit, certain pretrial rulings were appealed up to the Kentucky Supreme Court, and Breen said the ongoing recuperation process of the plaintiffs also made it difficult to resolve the case in a shorter time frame.

“I think that perseverance is one of the most important takeaways from this case,” Breen said. “That is, when you know you’re right and you know that you’re right on the law, you need to stick to your guns and see something all the way through, and that’s what these folks have done.”

Attorney Hamp Moore, representing Scotty’s, was out of the office Tuesday and did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Alexander’s judgment in favor of the plaintiffs found that there was a failure to ensure VanMeter had competent personnel on site to ensure that the retaining wall was being safely built in line with construction standards.

Daily work reports in the month leading up to the wall collapse showed no evidence of safety inspections being performed or compliance with safety procedures, according to court filings.

Federal and state work regulations were not enforced regarding the shoring up of the wall and there was a failure to inspect the anchoring at the site before allowing the wall to be poured, according to the judgment.

“There was an almost complete absence of the appropriate anchoring in this case, which caused the wall to fail and collapse,” Alexander said in his 22-page judgment. “The failure to enforce strict compliance with safety laws, rules and regulations was a substantial contributing factors to the collapse of the wall.”

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and VanMeter, finding that state highway department employees “witnessed several imminent danger violations, including inadequate fall protection and inadequate trenching/cave-in protection, but did not halt work despite a requirement that they do so.”

Deathredge testified that VanMeter’s on-site supervisor was “obviously incompetent” and had never worked on that type of retaining wall before, and the defendants were aware of an accident of a similar nature that occurred at a different worksite five months prior to the deadly incident in Barren County, records show.

Groce, who experiences “severely limited mobility” and other lasting physical effects from the accident, was awarded $4,730,084.98.

Nelson, who suffered wrist fractures and post-traumatic stress disorder and was left unable to care for his terminally ill wife, Linda Nelson, was awarded $2,731,823, while Linda Nelson was awarded $1 million.

McIntosh had to be pulled out of chest-deep concrete after the accident and suffered extensive injuries, records show. He was awarded $1,684,234.92.

Velma Decker is to recover $2 million from Scotty’s for the loss of her husband, and Kenneth Decker’s estate is to recover $437,587, based on a calculation of lost earnings and funeral expenses.

The plaintiffs were also awarded a total of $10 million in punitive damages for gross negligence for ignoring multiple safety responsibilities, to be paid by Scotty’s.

Scotty’s is appealing the judgment and has posted a $24.5 million appeal bond.