An Illinois appellate court has upheld a 16-million-dollar award given to the families of two people who died in a grain bin accident in Mount Carroll five years ago. The court ruled against Consolidated Grain and Barge Company, which was ordered to pay eight-million-dollars each to the families of 19-year-old Alejandro Pacas and 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread.
They and a third worker started sinking in the bin when a worker opened a pump and turned on the conveyor, drawing the workers beneath the corn. The other co-worker survived.