Trapped: Dying alone in grain bins

Minnesota is leading the nation in grain bin and silo accidents, the FOX 9 Investigators has learned. Since June, there have been nine deaths and three rescues.

[@robertcanderson329]

i was around 18 or 19 years old when i experienced starting to be 'sucked down' in grain while (stupidly) inside, shoveling to even it while it filled, in a bin about 80 percent filled... and when you realize what's happening to you, the words 'panic' and 'scared sh.-..less' take on a whole new level of meaning.... you instantly, instantly, realize that unlike starting to drown in water, in which by 'relaxing', you'll be buoyed safely to the surface, when you're sinking in grain you are dead meat.... you realize that if you struggle, you'll sink, and if you relax, you'll still sink anyway.....i was already almost armpit deep in it, when the only thing which saved me, was laying the shovel i was working with, 'sideways' across the top surface of the grain, and the large surface area of the aluminum shovel itself was enough to prevent it from sinking and gave me the chance to use it to 'climb back up onto' and then manage to get out...... many of the risks farmers take to try to do nothing more than squeeze the last half ounce of crop out of every field harvested are not only dumber'n h, they are totally un-necessary..... i'm 75 years old, i've survived two heart attacks and a lot of other stuff we all go through, but that day in that grainery in a field just outside the small town of Wainright Alberta Cda - i came within a very, very, few minutes of not even making it past 18 or 19.... you know how to stay alive in a grainery / silo ? simple.... don't go in one....period

[@Newrippleeffect991]

Glad your still with us brother.

[@The8B1tWarrior]

Thanks for commenting. My mom doesn't understand the severity

[@zakkeewaheed9864]

Well I guess it might be a way of long over due justice from stealing land and farming it like it's yours.

[@slickblowfish]

@@The8B1tWarriortell your mom to go in one

[@slickblowfish]

Well said brother

[@trust404]

I lost a high school friend this way. He always called me by my given name, not my nickname like everyone else. He seemed so proud of it and I actually loved it. So sad. I think about what he went through. He was so young. His funeral was hard.

[@adamg1234]

Sorry for your loss. Your friend sounds like a great person

[@mattdrummond5654]

Never go into a grain bin alone, at least with out an attendant...Never go into a bin with the auger energized.

[@kevinklingner3098]

Don't use flat bottom bins. .use cone base bins so you don't need to go into the silos. Even then if the auger goes inside you could have problems so a harness must be used. we never go in untill it is almost empty. In sheds is the only place we use sweeps then someone controls it all the time . There is another advantage of cone bins0 top and bottom only need conveyor belt systems to deliver grain to hoppers and top inlet. If they Re built right you should never need to actual need to enter them unless you harvest wet grain. Make sure base cones are well supported by rings with legs an struts.

[@j0sh368]

@@kevinklingner3098 we have to clean out cone ones all the time

[@wrench6122]

This has always been one of my greatest fears. You can put all of the regulations you want on these operations, but in the end, safety is the responsibility of one person and only one person: the one crawling into the bin.

[@josiahdixon1018]

They really talked about two different types of grain bin accidents and one silo accident. I have never been around silos but from what I know they are basically a grain bin for storing cattle feed at higher moistures. I am around lots of grain bins so will talk about them. A grain bin has one hole, usually about 1ft. by 1ft in the very center of the grain bin. All of the grain in the bin goes through that one hole to get out of the bin. The grain is gravity fed up until the last little bit which is still left around the edges. Then, you stick an auger called a sweep auger in which pulls the rest of the grain into the hole. The sweep auger leaves about 4 inches of grain on the bottom of the grain bin so often, one person will be in the bin to "sweep" that grain into the auger. The 18 year old was probably doing that when he was caught by the sweep auger and pulled in. A common cause of this is when a untied shoe lase gets wound up in the auger and pulls the shoe, foot, leg, farmer into the auger. The second accident happened when a the grain bin was still being gravity fed through the hole in the middle. A rotten chunk of grain plugged the 1 by 1 ft. hole and the man was trying to get it unplugged. The below floor auger was still running and woosh, the farmer started getting pulled down.

[@colemarie9262]

I feel so bad for the mother, it's awful....but I also hope she knows that the shock of such an injury would cause him to probably not feel pain right away, and bleeding out from an injury like that would be fast. I just want her to know it probably *was* really quick.

[@mt_gox]

i'm an MD and I can assure you it was a slow, agonizing death

[@UltimateDorito]

​@@mt_goxcan you explain why? Major blood loss that fast seems like loss of consciousness would be faster.

[@tab9773]

From now on when I say a Thanksgiving dinner prayer, in addition to thanking God for the food I'm about to eat, I will remember to also thank our agricultural workers for risking their lives every day to feed our country.

[@seanrichardson266]

God bless our farmers

[@ifeelbetterabouthis.louis3]

With grain silo deaths

[@Puppy_Puppington]

Omg. Why would anyone go in there with an insanely secure harness?!? I bet those hours were extremely terrifying. Not knowing if any second you’ll be finished or found.

[@Lucas_Antar]

His pants saved his life. Damn.

[@LittleBigBoyJunior]

Pants always save the day. Haven't you seen the last episode of Rick and Morty?

[@ryanarmstrong3321]

You should not be normalizing kill switches to turn off the auger from inside the bin. This will lead to more bin entries with the augers running and a kill switch ties up one of your hands leaving you ineffective in clearing any condition issues. This will lead to rigging the switches and putting them down inside the bin increasing the risk of engulfment. You have to turn off the auger and lock it out before you enter!!! 100% of the time. But even that doesn't eliminate every issue. You could get swallowed up by a collapsed bridge or crushed by knocked down grain that was hung up on the wall. Grain conditioning standards are far more important than kill switches. These farmers tend to hold onto products for too long to play the markets. These bins must be turned over based on a standard schedule to alleviate many of the issues that lead to having to enter the bin when it's full.

[@reallyhappenings5597]

Why not have a small robot that "swims" through the grain like a submarine or penguin, knocking it loose and helping it flow? Seems like it could be done for $500-1000 retail.

[@cherylm2C6671]

Too hard. This new climate means more occurrences where humidity either freezes or leaches enough starch to glue grain solid. A buddy system (not two kids) and harness, or a concrete vibrator, applied through loopholes from outside might help. Not sure about the physics, though, and there's still the gas. Time for a redesign.

[@benfaerber4956]

It was just invented! Check out Grain Weevil

[@garethjones909]

​@@cherylm2C6671Not true. They exist

[@cherylm2C6671]

I'm liking the idea of a silo-bot. Food shouldn't kill people. Not safe in there.

[@Inoculatemybrain]

Just started working at one of these and on my second day I got out in to a very very poor made one I think made in 1970s. I was worried of getting sucked in and now starting to learn what agar even are. I’ve seen them there and going start working there tomorrow as a new hire before was as a labor finder. Seeing this makes me give new respect to doing this and not gonna just let them put me in a crazy condition

[@wishingwell_333]

what do you need to do to get hired at one of these places anyway like what's your qualifications

[@Inoculatemybrain]

@@wishingwell_333 nothing at all at the one I was at. Well obviously the basic stuff social and drug free stuff like that but they liked how I worked so they hired me on. But I left to be a helper of a welder who was working there. I’m now making a little bit more , just helping this welder guy out

[@Newrippleeffect991]

Grain bins should have emergency doors you can escape out of all around the bins. I don't know just a thought.

[@tigsgal]

I'm so sorry for this mommas pain.

[@Amanda-bg7ib]

What if they had something like an alexa/ google home, where they would yell some command with their voice and the auger would stop. For instance, if can we install a microphone and system where if you shout a word like "call" it will contact the fire dept (or others) through a radio or a cell phone? Another idea is to install a voice activated trap door, letting the grain out. Would it be helpful to have a wristband with a button that stops the augers from moving, it seems like a simple device to make. If not a wristband, we could install the button on a commonly used tool. We could even make it voice activated too. So if someone yells "help"/"stop" the auger will turn off. Would any devices like these be useful? Or is the issue mostly that people suffocating from the pressures of the grain and help cannot arrive fast enough? As a engineering student from a city, (who knows nothing about farms and is learning how to build devices like these) I feel like there has to be some better tools/systems/devices that farmers can use to help mitigate accidents

[@amandag1650]

These accidents generally happen on small farms. I'm still in a tractor that's 30 years older than me..money is tight. Harness and 2 person rule is the best we can do. As a city person please remember every regulation of forced upgrades comes with a family farm where its the straw that broke the camels back and farm will be lost to a corporation

[@amandag1650]

I'll also add you have a solid idea and absolutely could market it to corporate farms. Just saying if it's expensive and becomes regulation it could really hurt some people

[@rei8694]

If it’s a case where someone falls into it, the person literally has like 25 seconds until they’re basically dead because they’ll suffocate and it’s very hard to pull someone out at that point, it can take well over 600lbs in pulling force

[@k0nbini]

technology still has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to practical applications but i like your thinking

[@nunceccemortiferiscultu7826]

Tried that in the factory I work in. Got rid of the system because everything set it off, from random vibrations to birds singing outside.

[@tylerhaynie5769]

So sad 😭

[@Justin-zj7lr]

We have walkie talkies at our grain elevator. And we have a dryer so we dry it before it goes in, but we're about to start vaccing out all 29 of our bins. Hopefully it goes safely 🤞

[@SamM-gl9zc]

What's to investigate????

[@1991Meka]

Maybe they should think about wearing a device like "life alert."

[@theyangview1898]

So sad

[@artsbybware4790]

Wow

[@dominickjustave3558]

No safety wow

[@Roman_K.]

Rip

[@reallyhappenings5597]

Would snowshoe-type footwear prevent sinking?

[@pillowbugg]

Paddles that rotate around the edges of the grain bin in a circular fashion, and starting on top and moving its way down towards the auger...no need to enter the bins at all.

[@aidencrawford5977]

I live on a farm. To clean our bins, we use what is called a sweep. It cirlcles around on the floor and moves the grain into a hold in the middle of the floor. An auger from under the floor, carries it out of the bin. We still have to get inside and clean behind it, and/or help it feed. The sweep is what killed the first kid.

[@ShermanT.Potter]

I farm. Not cost effective, but I like the idea, its unique!

[@theprofessorfate6184]

In other words, you have to be smarter than grain.

[@adamg1234]

This is so sad. People in these comments have great ideas of saving peoples lives with technology. Could they not have a way of releasing the bottom if someones trapped with a button to release the bottom? I dont know if that would work but there has to be something

[@kamulegeyakim5169]

This is sad... osha needs to do something

[@j0sh368]

osha doesnt apply to family farms, only commercial companies like what i work for.

[@SwampOperator]

Osha needs to stay the hell out of people's life. Everybody knows about this. And yet 2 or 3 people a year ignore all safety and do this and pay the price. Leave these small farms alone .

[@coolguy467]

This why I'm not a farmer

[@datatwo7405]

My Stars! Why on earth was he working alone?! What a horrible thing to happen, I am both angry and heartbroken for that poor woman! There have been bills with regulations and safety measures meant to ban workers from entering silos, grain walking, etc., but they get defeated. Usually by farm owners lobbying for their defeat. Imagine that, placing your profit margins over the lives of someone's kin or your own! Just the same, even if those regulations were allowed to exist, small family farms are usually exempt from them anyhow. Thus, it would still be that family members working on those farms, often youngsters, would still be prone to these accidents. I'm sorry, I don't care what profit concerns a company has, that, nor anything else, should interfere with worker safety today. It is 2022, not 1910. We still have a high rate of such accidents each year in comparison to those nations that have done what they should and could to put a stop to such practices. Yes, they still happen, but in much lower numbers than before, and those that still usually occur are because someone ignores them despite their existence. No matter what 'splaining someone has to justify around this, these kinds of horrors do not have to happen. Back in my day, we always said an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cures. And the fact that this boy was working that silo - alone just angers me beyond my ability to put into words. That poor poor mother, she will never heal over this. Losing a child is one of the most traumatic things to happen to a woman and worse when it could have been prevented. Anyone who was to say to me, "well an auger switch, or a harness, or this or that is gonna cost me too much money. . . " that person just better run from my site -- be grateful that I am way too old and too broken to run after them. Because I would knock that basterd down and crush them beneath my heels like the psychopath they are. No amount of money is worth the death of someone's kin.

[@ShermanT.Potter]

I'm a farmer. The sweep auger may have been due to inadequate training and I feel bad for that kid, but a veteran farmer breaking grain loose without a tie off in a bin deep enough to trap you? Why would you do that? I take alot of risks, but that is insane. I dry my corn down to where this never happens, but even if I did, I bought a mountain climbing harness and rope for around $160 for doing roof work in case I slip, I would use that. Other farmers, don't make OSHA come out and inspect us, use common sense so we can keep up our efficiency and not get bogged down in bureaucratic regulations with lockout-tagout and all that other stuff, especially for one man operations. I have to be in the bin when using a sweep auger, the unload auger runs at a lesser capacity than the sweep and if I don't pull it away from the grain the sweep motor will stall, and starting/stopping the sweep motor repeatedly is hard on it. You guys will cost the rest of us money if you do stuff like in the video. I'm a small producer, what if OSHA steps in and requires we put in multiple thousands of dollars of safeguards in place so people who don't have common sense are safe? It could make the little guy go out of business.

[@rockymountainlockpicker9606]

Well said. We need more education not more regulation

[@christiancarter152]

when all you need is a safety harness. not a big ask

[@ralphmacchiato3761]

The best bread has the taste of the farmer.

[@Allworldsk1]

Mother had great ideas.! 👌

[@LittleBigBoyJunior]

Ngl at first I thought that ladies name was Michelle Grain lol

[@JC-di4uz]

I mean.... what's to investigate???

[@williamstreet8542]

"... if you were to go under you could suffocate un under two minutes... literally... drowning... IN CORN." IDK why but this made me laugh out loud lol The line itself coupled with his delivery of it 😅

[@SamM-gl9zc]

I feel for the mom, but if somebody else has to be there, it kind of makes the first guy being there pointless - are they gonna pay an entire second crew just to watch the first crew? That's why nobody else was there

[@erich84502b]

Scary, I will never eat corn again

[@LittleBigBoyJunior]

Did... Did they save the grain?

[@ayoleman]

what i got from this is to take off a piece of lcothing, hopefully a shirt/pants and shoes.

[@chompchomp7853]

say no to grain 🛑

[@DirtBoyTrilla]

I just farted.

[@Puppy_Puppington]

OSHA can’t be there to force laws and rules/safety guidelines and “baby” people. People who are careless/lazy/misinformed/risky will be careless and dangerous. Just like any other safety laws, it doesn’t save people much I think. Look at drunk driving, it’s illegal yet..... maybe it’s ignorance? The type of person and all. Darwin awards I guess. Because an intelligent person wouldn’t risk something they understand completely.

[@j0sh368]

osha doesnt apply to family farms, only commercial companies like what i work for.

[@j.settle6448]

OSHA is the LAST thing any farmer needs or wants in their daily operations!! OSHA is not the answer to anything at all!!

[@SwampOperator]

10 seconds in and hes hollering for the government to do something I'm so sick of people begging for more government intrusion. In the end it'll do nothing but abuse the people that already have a bad job.

[@brianarademacher8185]

18 yrs old and farmers are dangerous, never seen one any good with hydraulics maybe a 3 way hitch and a pin pull trailer, hours before because “ you’ll be alright bud ?” Falls into the bin and done in 20 minutes of struggling, if ya move your going down , better to lay on top and not move

[@adambubacz8058]

I’m sure then farmers didn’t just let her son alone to die. I understand she is broken but don’t fabricate it like it was on purpose.

[@mt_gox]

it's the price we pay for high fructose corn syrup