Forty-seven passengers and crew members died after a towboat, lost in fog and darkness, rammed the railroad bridge over the bayou moments before the Sunset Limited began to cross. Several of the Amtrak cars derailed and fell into the bayou's murky water and mud.

More than 100 lawsuits were filed as a result of the tragedy, the worst in Amtrak's history, though most were settled.

The verdicts unsealed Wednesday involved as defendants CSX Transportation Inc., which owned the rail tracks over the bayou bridge; Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., which owned the towboat; and Willie Odom of rural Mobile County, the towboat pilot. Amtrak was not a defendant.

One jury awarded $556,696 to Elizabeth Watts and husband Robert Watts of Placerville, Calif., and another jury awarded $750,000 to Houston teacher Michelle Dotting. All three were passengers in the same railcar that plunged into the bayou.

Broox Holmes, an attorney for the defendants, declined to comment on the verdicts.

Four cases involving the Sunset Limited disaster remain unresolved, with the next trials scheduled to begin in August.