[stillafreemind]

I felt terrible hearing this about these kids. A lot of kids, myself included, detasseled corn around here back in the day. Of course we didn't have the irrigators back then..now they are everywhere.

[driftdiver]

I’ve seen kids get killed by lightning while in the field, but this seems strange for them to be electrocuted.

[delacoert]

I don't know what's more tragic - the incident or the the reportage.

They "died of their" ... DIED OF THEIR WHAT ?!?!

Then the lead is buried in the fourth paragraph.

… accidental contact with … in this case, electrocution …

[tcrlaf]

They were electrocuted by an electric irrigator that had a short, that electrified the shallow water they were walking through...

[DManA]

I read this 3 times and I can’t see exactly how they got hurt. Something to do with the irrigation machine?

[Gabz]

Working for Monsanto Corp was all I needed to read.........those people are evil.

Prayers for the families of these girls and the others injured.

[listenhillary]

Sad story and totally preventable.

My brothers used to do this a long time ago for a farmer nearby. My city raised aunt seemed to think that it was the thing to do to corn, so she went out and snipped all of the tassels off of the sweet corn. When someone asked how her corn was going to get pollinated, she went back out and tried to tape them back on the plants. It didn’t work.

[TSgt]

A $20 dollar device like this could have saved their lives.

I use GFCI's liberally.

[Rebelbase]

A weather channel guy last week said that corn tassels were affecting the humidity for Wisconsin.

Anyone ever heard of this before?

[goodwithagun]

Will Monstanto be protected from these law suits also?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Sad. RIP.

[PiperShade]

Farming - or “pharming” - has long been recognized as having a high mortality rate. Right up there next to commercial fishing. I feel for the families involved. But if ‘they’re farmers they know the risks.

In my small town friends lost their daughter by electrocution moving a grain auger. Others a cousin by suffication in a grain bin accident. Lots of contemporaries I know - and their kids - have died in accidents incidental to farming operations over the years.

A decade or so back I spent a few hours with a farming friend discussing how many of us “farm kids” grew up in a tractor seat performing tillage and harvest tasks at ages when our peers were trying to peddal a Schwin. Or how our kids “grew up” directing of a couple of hundred horsepower in the same tasks. >PS