RENSSELAER -- A Jasper County jury on Friday awarded the family of a

Merrillville man $5.1 million in damages in a wrongful death suit against the

Grand Trunk Western Railroad.

The jury found in favor of the family of Rudolph J. Kapitan, a 30-year-old

businessman from Merrillville, who died instantly when his car was struck by a

Grand Trunk Western freight train Nov. 6, 1988, at an unprotected railroad

crossing at Hendricks Street in Merrillville.

A Grand Trunk Western spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment.

Kenneth J. Allen, a lawyer for the Kapitan family and for Kapitan's widow,

Tamera Kapitan, 36, of Hebron, said the Hendricks Street crossing was among the

most hazardous in Indiana and among the worst in the nation. It was not until

after Kapitan's death that gates and flashing lights were finally installed at

the crossing, work done by the town of Merrillville, not the railroad, Allen

said.

"In the 12 years before Rudy's death, there were at least 10 other accidents at

this crossing, including the death of 17-year-old Julie Rothenberg."

Rothenberg, a senior at Andrean High School, was on her way home from dropping

off a friend when she was killed at the crossing.

"The crash history at the Hendricks Street crossing was among the very worst in

the nation, and the railroad knew it. Yet it deliberately chose to do nothing

other than wait for the taxpayers to pay for the installation of flashing

lights and gates after Rudy died," Allen said.

The jury verdict, which assessed 50 percent comparative fault to Kapitan, was

reached at about 1 a.m. Friday after a four-day trial and almost eight hours of

deliberation in the courtroom of Judge Duane Daugherty. The case had been

transferred to Rensselaer by the railroad because, according to Allen, "the

railroad preferred a rural jury to an urban one, which statistics show would

likely return a larger award."

The delay in trial was caused by an appeal over the railroad's right to

transfer the case out of Lake County, where the crash occurred, and a ruling

made earlier in the case by Daugherty that Kapitan's family was not entitled to

a trial by jury, Allen said.

Before his death, Rudy Kapitan, his wife, his mother and his father ran Kapitan

Motors Inc., a used car dealership in Lake County.

Allen said the judgment awarded by the jury on Friday was based in part on the

earnings that Kapitan would have made had he lived.

Kapitan was returning from church and on his way to see his parents when he was

hit by the train. Since their son's death, Mary and Rudolph Kapitan Sr. have

waged a campaign to make railroad crossings safer statewide and educate people

to the dangers of crossings without warning lights and gates.

The Kapitans declined comment Friday on the verdict, believed to be the largest

for a railroad grade crossing death in Indiana against the Grand Trunk and the

largest damages awarded in Jasper County history, Allen said.

"The jury did the right thing. Their verdict for Rudy's family should dispel

the myth that, in a big case, you can't get a fair trial in small town," Allen

said.

Deborah Laverty can be reached by e-mail at dlaverty@howpubs.com or by phone at

(219)662-5324.