On January 9, 2001, Fidel and Francisca Velarde were passengers of an SUV driven by their daughter, Lilia Apulello. The vehicle was crossing railroad tracks on Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale, Illinois. The owner and maintainer of the tracks, the Illinois Central Railroad Company d/b/a Canadian National/ Illinois Central Railroad Company (CNIC), knew for weeks that snow and road salt had caused the intersection's warning gates and lights to malfunction and was using a stop-and-flag procedure there until the signals were repaired. The train, consisting of three locomotives and 63 cars, proceeded through the intersection at 50 miles per hour. The SUV was struck and pushed 900 feet down the tracks. The Velardes suffered debilitating brain injuries. Television stations and newspaper reports offered conflicting accounts of whether the gates and lights were working properly.
The day after the crash, the family hired prominent Chicago injury lawyer, Tim Cavanagh, who had just obtained a $9.1 million settlement with CNIC in the Ajmeri case only three months earlier. The next morning, Mr. Cavanagh filed a lawsuit against CNIC and the train operator, Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad Company and filed an Emergency Motion for a Protective Order seeking to have all evidence preserved which was granted. Because of the preservation order, Mr. Cavanagh secured audiotapes of communication between dispatch and the engineer proving that the dispatcher mistakenly advised the engineer that the signal problem had been fixed.
Over the next several months, Mr. Cavanagh personally took over 35 depositions and successfully advanced the case to trial. One year later, a Cook County jury returned a verdict of $55 million for the Velardes and their daughter. The case was affirmed on appeal.
