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An Illinois jury has returned a record verdict of nearly $17 million in the deaths of two teenagers and the traumatic entrapment of a third worker in a grain bin in 2010, NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

 by Howard and the Center for Public Integrity. There's also an 

interactive database about the series here

In July 2010, as Howard tells the NPR Newscast, "teenagers Wyatt Whitebread and Alex Pacas, and 20-year-old Will Piper were sent into an Illinois grain bin to unclog corn — but without training and safety gear and in violation of federal regulations."


"NPR and the Center for Public Integrity," Howard adds, "documented hundreds of similar cases in which workers drowned in grain." Expanding federal regulation of such facilities, however, has drawn "stiff resistance," 

In such cases, Howard says, criminal charges are rare. But he reports that the jury in Carroll County, Ill., "says the deaths of Whitebread and Pacas, and the six-hour entrapment of Piper, deserved damage awards of nearly $17 million. The verdict against Consolidated Grain and Barge follows a settlement last year with a group of farmers also managing the bin."

 the families of the two teens who died were each awarded $8 million. Piper, who survived, was awarded $875,000.
"The mothers of Pacas and Whitebread wiped away tears as lawyers delivered closing arguments Wednesday," the

, the jury's award is a record for Carroll County: "The previous record[s] being a $220,000 verdict in 1989 and a $1.1 million settlement in 2005, according to plaintiffs attorneys."


Update at 11:40 a.m. ET. Appeal Expected:


"Jonathan Sandoz, general counsel for Consolidated Grain and Barge Company, said that they plan to appeal the verdict," the 

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An Illinois jury has returned a record verdict of nearly $17 million in the deaths of two teenagers and the traumatic entrapment of a third worker in a grain bin in 2010.

Jury awards nearly $17M in grain bin death

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