A Purdue University report showed 51 grain bin accidents last year, up from 38 in 2009 and the most since tracking began in 1978. Twenty-five people died, and five of them were children under the age of 16.
The previous record for grain bin accidents was 42 in 1993. The accidents prompted the OSHA to send letters this past week to 10,000-grain bin operators across the U.S., telling them they are responsible for preventing the deaths of their workers in grain bins. The letters follow a batch OSHA sent last summer to 3,000-grain storage operators after three people died in two accidents at storage facilities in Illinois.
One of the accidents involved two teenagers who were sent into a grain bin at a terminal in Mount Carroll, Ill., to break up the clumped grain. The bin, which held up to 500,000 bushels, was about half full, and rescue workers had to cut holes in its sides and drain thousands of bushels of grain to reach their bodies. Bill Field, a Purdue University professor who has studied grain bin accidents for 30 years, said such accidents had already become more common when there was a spike after the 2009 harvest. “What we had throughout the Corn Belt was high levels of moisture, and some were put into storage and began to spoil,” Field said. “That caused a problem with mold and grain caking together and inability to flow out of the bin.”
