Illinois Court Upholds Ruling In Fatal Grain Bin Accident
The door on a grain bin remains open following an accident in Story County, Iowa, Monday, July 11, 2005, which killed a 72-year-old Nevada, Iowa man after he and two others were loading a semitrailer with grain. (AP Photo/Iowa State Daily, Morris L. Manning)
An Illinois appellate court has upheld a $16 million judgment awarded to the families of two people who died in a 2010 grain bin accident in northwestern Illinois.
Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. filed the appeal after a Carroll County jury awarded $8 million each to the families of 19-year-old Alejandro Pacas and 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread.
Sauk Valley Media reports that the two co-workers were killed after they became trapped in a Mount Carroll grain elevator.
Court documents say Pacas, Whitebread and a third co-worker started sinking in the bin when a full-time employee opened up the intermediate sump pump and turned on the conveyor.
The other co-worker survived after a six-hour rescue process. But Pacas and Whitebread died of asphyxiation as a result of being engulfed in corn.