Rise of Grain Bin Accidents Spurs Invention of Liberty Rescue Tube

Farm accidents are common in Illinois, but due to the tragic deaths July, 2010, of two 14 year old boys, experts have begun to pay attention.

Two area teens, Wyatt Whitebread, 14, and Alejandro Pacas, 19, both of Mount Carroll, Illinois, died in a grain bin accident, which took place at Consolidated Grain & Barge, 10650 Mill Road in Mount Carroll. A third victim, William Piper, 20, of Mount Carroll, was pulled from the grain bin and hospitalized in Rockford. Piper was later released from the hospital. The three people trapped in the bin were employees of Haasbach, LLC, the firm that owns and operates the Mount Carroll grain facility.

Piper, Pacas, and Whitebread were reportedly standing in the corn while the grain bin's unloading system was in operation. The corn was being carried away by a conveyor system beneath the bin.

At some point, Whitebread found himself sinking into the corn, and Piper and Pacas tried to help him. Whitebread was completely engulfed in the corn, and soon after that, Pacas became engulfed as well. Piper remained in the bin with his head above the corn. Another male individual, age 15, got out of the bin and went for help.

The incident sparked a massive rescue effort involving numerous area agencies. The case was then investigated by the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, the Carroll County Coroner's Office, and OSHA.

Family Files Lawsuit

Wyatt Whitebread's family filed a lawsuit against Haasbach in Carroll County Circuit Court, seeking damages for his death. Zollinger, a Haasbach lawyer, says that Whitebread, even though he was 14, was "lawfully employed" and thus covered by workers compensation. A single person with no dependents who dies on the job gets up to $8,000 for burial expenses under Illinois' workers compensation act and employees covered by workers comp cannot sue their employers.

Kevin Durkin, a lawyer for the Whitebread family, said Wyatt was working for Haasbach illegally, echoing the Labor Department's child labor finding.

"I don't want any mom, any dad, any sibling to go through what our family has had to go through," says Annette Pacas, the boy's grieving mother. "Everything that could have been done to stop my son from dying wasn't done. How many people have to die before these problems are taken care of?"

"My heart is broken," Carla Whitebread, Wyatt's mother, said in a statement. "We will never get over what happened."

Grain Handling Safety Coalition Formed

Alex Pacas' outraged aunt, Catherine Rylatt, convinced regulators, farmers, grain elevator operators and safety experts in Illinois to join the newly formed Grain Handling Safety Coalition (GHSC), dedicated to providing more education and training that can help prevent accidents. Several sessions in the state have been scheduled. The coalition is starting its work in Illinois and plans to expand nationally in the next several years.

The Coalition includes farm groups, educational institutions, state departments, OSHA, the commercial grain industry, family members, NIOSH, rescue personnel and others interested in eliminating engulfments in grain bins.

The Coalition started meeting last fall and is developing public service announcements which will air this spring.

In addition, the Coalition is working on educational projects focused on raising awareness in the farm community. The Coalition motto is; "Sow Safety. Reap Rewards.

Fines Issued

As a result of the investigation, Haasbach was issued 24 citations from OSHA, with a penalty of $550,000, for violations related to not having proper equipment or training. In addition, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division fined the company $68,125 for employing individuals under the age of 18 for hazardous work.

The investigation into Haasbach falls under OSHA's Severe Violators Enforcement Program, meaning Haasbach will have to submit to mandatory unannounced inspections of their facilities by OSHA personnel.

Scott Allen, a spokesman for OSHA, stated on February 17, 2011, that he was not aware of any initial hearing dates that have been set in the Haasbach settlement process. He emphasized that OSHA's primary concern is making sure Haasbach changes its practices so that workers are safe.

"Obviously, our objective is to ensure these companies abate all the violations so we can ensure all the workers are protected when working in grain bins," Allen said, referencing the Haasbach case and a similar grain bin tragedy in Geneseo. "That's our top priority, to protect the workers."

Grain Engulfment Accidents on the Rise

Over the past 40 years more than 600 individuals have been engulfed and suffocated in flowing grain. These incidents have occurred in grain storage structures, grain storage pile, and grain transport vehicles.

Based upon research conducted at Purdue University, approximately 80 percent of the cases documented that involved a partially entrapped victim, resulted in a fatality.

One might wonder why, if part of the victim's body is still visible why not just yank them out. To do so might literally tear the person's body in half from the weight of the grain on their lower body.

OSHA outlines rules for grain bin safety, but many times, for whatever reason, these rules are not followed. Every time someone goes into a grain bin, machinery that helps move grain should be turned off. The person should wear a body harness so he can be pulled to safety. An observer should stand outside the bin ready to help if needed.

Historically, it has been found that building a grain retaining wall or coffer dam around the victim and then removing the grain from within the remaining space is an effective rescue strategy. In the past, pieces of plywood, back boards, garbage cans and barrels with the bottom removed, and other items have been used successfully to protect the victim from back flowing grain.

Most victims of full engulfment in grain die of asphyxiation due to ingestion of grain in the mouth, throat, and nose.Non-fatal injuries that have been documented include exposure to toxic dusts; hypothermia - from long term exposure to chilled, wet grain; entanglements in unloading augers; impact injuries from being struck by falling chunks of grain or falls into the storage structure; and limb dislocations due to attempts by rescuers to pull victims from back flowing grain.

Professor Devises Rescue System

Doug Kingman is an assistant professor in agriculture and industrial sciences at Sam Houston State University. When he was working on his master's and doctoral degrees at Purdue he studied incidents in which farmers and workers in grain storage facilities sometimes died as a result of being covered with grain.

"I investigated several engulfment incidents where better, more efficient rescue devices might have saved a life or two," said Kingman. "I found several very crude devices that had potential, but probably increased the risk of injury to rescue workers as well as the victims."

At Illinois State he received a grant to further his research. He came up with an idea and asked the university if he could market it. They said "go for it."

"This was a classic example of a faculty member receiving public funds, doing research on a problem, and then legally producing a marketable product that serves the public," said Kingman.

He designed a "bulk grain rescue tube." It is manufactured by a company Kingman formed, Liberty Rescue Systems, and sold by a distributor, Mill and Elevator Supply of Kansas City, Mo.

According to the distributing company's Web site, the unit consists of "four vertical interlocking units that form a cylinder which is driven section by section into the grain surrounding the entrapped victim (to) allow the grain to be moved so the victim can be safely extricated."

The unit, which sells for about $4,500; almost a hundred have been sold, Kingman said. For more information on this device, see Liberty Rescue Systems website.

Sources:

Judith Graham, Grain bin accidents get a fresh look by federal authorities, Chicago Tribune, Ag Week-Grain News

Questions on Flowing Grain Entrapment, Extension, Grain Lab, Purdue University

SHSU faculty member's invention is a life saver, SHSU.edu