An Illinois jury ordered two railroad companies last week to pay $55 million in damages to the victims of a dreadful train accident. Lilia Apulello, 40, was driving with her parents, Fidel and Francisca Velarde, in January 2001 when a Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad freight train slammed into her sports-utility vehicle as the truck drove across a Canadian National/Illinois Central Railroad crossing in Bloomington.

Witnesses testified that the crossing's warning lights and safety gate did not function at the time of the accident. Apulello, who can no longer work, drive, or dress herself, and her parents suffered permanent brain injuries in the collision.