The idea that a man (boy) must go inside these things to loosen stuck corn/grain is ludicrous. Most farms today have millions of dollars of equipment, yet they store their product in antiquated, dangerous silos.
Some way of vibrating a silo might be a solution. Vibration would settle the grain, shake the stuff off the sides, & safely collapse false domes/bridges. Yeah, it might cost some money, but so do dead workers & over-regulation.
This is America! Fix it!
Living on the south-side of Chicago is a death trap, but the NYT doesn’t cry about that.
The answer to every problem is government when you're the government.
I don’t think we need big government on the farm, but farmers need a healthy lesson in industrial safety. Nearly all farm deaths are really industrial accidents and basic safety precautions could have prevented them. Just from the stories FReepers have mentioned;
1. Suspended load violations.
2. Confined space violations.
3. Material handling violations.
4. Chemical/Hazmat/MSDS violations.
How many deaths caused by printing presses in the United States in 2010? I'll bet on more.... And murders in Chicago - Philly and LA's inner cities? That would be more than 26 in a week... every week - every week for years... No one in flyover needs 'pity' from the hateful New York Times.
To add my own story;
In 1974, a friend lost his father and brother to an ammonia leak. It was a Catholic school, so the entire school walked across the street to the viewing and then we had the funeral during class hours later that day. Very sad times for that family.
WOW! I am saddened when I hear of incidents like this happening. Silo/grain elevator work is dangerous.
Used to live in Sterling and went to school with Tommy’s relatives,worked on the farms in the Standish /Sterling area. Silo’s/grain elevators/grain storage are hot, dusty, and many times cause’s one to lose sense of direction.
My sincere heartfelt condolences go out to the Osier family.
Silos do blow up from time to time, too.
So do grain bins.
Methane gas is a problem, but dust is the worst.
It's not just silos. I've seen loggers stand on the pile of logs and kick at them to start them rolling. Once in awhile they couldn't get off the pile fast enough. Or air up the old split rims on trucks without a cage. And you thought Oddjobs hat would take your head off, imagine a heavy steel ring doing the same thing.
I spent my youth on a farm in Kansas and spent some time inside the round silos. The stored grain will get damp and develpes a crust so when the farmers remove the grain from the bottom of the silo, the crust holds in place and must be ‘stomped on’ to get it to the auger in the bottom of the silo. The grain is then taken to a drying station and returned after dried. I lost an uncle when he fell through the crust and it collapsed in on top of him and he suffocated.
When I was scheduled to clean out the silos, I would go to our garden first and gather up as many water hoses as necessary. I'd carry then up to the bin and then drop them into the bin.
I worked with three other guys that called me all kinds of nasty names. After a man died in Bloomington inside a grain silo, I noticed they started carrying hoses to work too!