$4 Million Spill From Thomas the Tank Engine

BALTIMORE (CN) – A mother’s fall from a Thomas the Tank Engine gangplank led her family to demand $4 million from the B&O Railroad Museum, Mattel, and Hit Entertainment, for their “Day Out With Thomas” train ride.      Kathryn Barnes, her husband and their 3-year-old son sued the three corporations in City Court.     The museum’s “Day Out With Thomas” exhibit included a 30-minute ride aboard a replica of Thomas the Tank Engine, of children’s book and cartoon fame.     After the ride ended, passengers had to walk across a gangplank to the platform.     As Kathryn Barnes stepped onto the gangplank, “suddenly and without warning the gangplank gave way causing her to fall between the train and the platform, a drop of approximately four feet,” the complaint states.     The Barneses say, “the gangplank connecting the train to the platform had not been properly installed and/or secured.”     Kathryn Barnes suffered “excruciating pain” and was taken by ambulance to a hospital for injuries to her head, neck, body, limbs, right ankle, left tibia, fibula, meniscus and ACL, the complaint states. The Barneses say their little boy suffered mental trauma from watching his mother’s ordeal.     They seek $4 million in damages for negligence, negligence, premises liability, loss of consortium, emotional distress and mental anguish.     They are represented by Henry Belsky with Schlachman, Belsky & Weiner.