Spent my teen years on a farm. We were told that silos were death traps. Much like a loaded gun you had to be careful around them, respect them, or they’ll kill you. Either from falling, entrapment/engulfment, or low oxygen death.
Automobiles and women are also death traps.
I worked on a dairy farm in high school many years ago. When the family bought the farm there was a silo filled with corn silage that had been there several years. We dug it out from the bottom but never went inside to do it. After it was empty we filled it with alphala and my friend (owners son) and I got inside as the alphala was blown in from the top and we used a hose to wet it down, stomp it down and throw rock salt all around. It was itchy work and as soon as we got out we hosed each other down. The old silos, like this one, were higher and thinner than the newer ones. We were always warned that you had to be careful around the silo but usually because of the danger of methane gas if the grain was not packed very tight. That’s why we stomped it.
Interesting the writer of this article blames Republicans for silo deaths. The rules were relaxed during the Obama admin, but Pubbies are blamed anyway. I’m sure the deaths were caused by Republican congressmen advocating lax standards and more silo deaths. (snort)
The annual number of such accidents rose throughout the past decade, reaching a peak of at least 26 deaths in 2010, before dropping somewhat since.
People die. It's always a tragedy, and it's always something that should be avoided. But it happens. We are trying to live in a world where no one gets sick, no one dies, and no sad events ever occur.
The growth of government is fueled by this mentality. We need pure food and drugs, we need clean water and air. Our workplaces must be safe. Our forests must be protected. And on and on and on.
In one night in Chicago, 26 people can get shot. In one year, 26 people die in farm accidents. I am unwilling to beg government to step in and pass more regulations, or to make teenage labor illegal, or to somehow cripple our farming industry in an effort to prevent death from stalking the land.
Stuff happens.
This is a big problem here when the cold weather often makes the silage freeze solid part way up the silo, leaving a void in the bottom of the silo. Some of the older silos used to even create a partial vacuum above the silage. I know several people who had close calls when trying to free up frozen silage.
This is something “new” and “unexpected”? My grandfather was a farmer (corn), my mom managed the farm after he passed, I never lived on a farm, but even I grew up knowing they were dangerous - even if I didn’t understand why at the time (I assumed because if you fell from the top it was a long way down).
That said, prayers for the kids’ family. Any death of a child is horrible.
Best friend in jr. high died in a silo due to poisonous gases from crops, as I recall.
It’s an evil Republican article. Democrats want to “enforce safety laws” around silos and evil Republicans want kids to go into them and die.
Seriously, I’ve never lived in farm areas but my mom grew up there. I remember as a little girl my mom telling me about family members who was crushed or died in silo accidents. They are very dangerous places and I’m from NY and I knew that.
Barring all those stories, did no one ever see “Witness”?
Quite frankly, I'd rather do that 100 times as have to clean out the bottom of the bean bins in the spring. You haven't smelled bad until you've had to go in on that one. Dead and bloated carcass basking in the sun has nothing on rotten soybeans.
Not as many die in silos as die in a small abortion clinic? Wonder what the Commie Times thinks about that?
Pray for America
Public schools are death traps for the youth of this nation in more ways than one. Far more young people die in the public schools or as a result of improper teaching or bad influences from the public schools than EVER died in a silo.
This requires a simple engineering solution, NOT a bunch ignorant regulations.
I lost a friend a couple of years ago to a silo.
Drowned in corn doesn’t sound like a good way to go. He was older, 70 years old, and should have known better.
When your number comes up you answer God’s call.
Farther down it’s just a push for more federal government. People at the NYT, who’ve probably never set foot on a farm much less try to make a living that way, want to dictate to farmers how to farm. Psssssst.
Silos and grain bins and hog pens were off limits on my grandfather’s farm to all of us grand-kids. Those were the rules that were iron-clad.
Ah, yes, the risk free life.
Was always taught to be careful around silos. Climbing them alone was terrifying for me as I have acrophobia, but did it anyway.
And then there are PTO shafts. Yeesh. One of my high school friends was wrapped around one.
Sky-is-falling fear-mongering written by some elitist clown who thinks “silo” is Jennifer Lopez’ sister.
The article refers to the accidents happening in “silos”, but it appears that these accidents in reality happened in grain bins that hold dried grain.
Traditional silos store ensiled fodder for feed—”silage”— that ferments and undergoes anerobic fermentation in order to be preserved from spoiling. The gases released during fermentation can provide deadly results, from both direct poisoning or from the consequenses of becoming overcome/unconscious while climbing into the silo. Traditional silos have hazzards that must be respected.
This story is more about entrapement and suffocation in dried grain stored in grain bins. Farmers are not going to call these structures “silos”, but the Times uses that imprecise term to make this hazzard appear like a greater threat than it actually is. The reporter has thus attempted to include traditional silos storing fermented fodder—that have their own distinctive hazzards—in with grain bins that store dried shelled corn or soybeans or other small grains and have the hazzard of entrapement for an individual that enters.