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.

Scott Olson, Getty Images
Scott Olson, Getty Images
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