By Ronald D. White - Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, June 18, 2007

On the last morning of her life, 26-year-old Piper Inness Cameron was doing exactly what she had always wanted to do.

She was working on the deck of a tugboat and counting the days until she, like her father, would be piloting one. There were 41 to go.

Then, at 11 a.m. Feb. 20 while moving through Santa Monica Bay about two miles off Marina del Rey, something went wrong. A line linking the tug and the barge it was towing suddenly struck Cameron and slammed her into a railing. She died before reaching a hospital.

The accident almost four months ago was a wake-up call for the unions representing more than 15,000 West Coast maritime industry workers. The swell in global trade and the technological advances that have made shipping more efficient than ever before have compounded the hazards of maritime jobs, and labor leaders are calling for new safety studies and standards.

"We can't let her death go in vain," said Alan Cote, national president of the Inlandboatmen's Union.