![]() Grain entrapments accounted for 49% of the documented cases. Of these cases, there were 30 documented grain entrapment cases, 46 reported falls into or from grain storage structures, seven asphyxiations due to deficient oxygen levels or toxic environments, and 11 equipment entanglements that occurred while working inside or around confined spaces. In 2018, Purdue tracked 61 confined space accidents - 13% more than in 2017. Of all cases documented, 1,214 (59%) were fatal Of them all, 1,462 (71%) involved grain storage and handling facilities, of which 1,225 were reported as entrapment or engulfment in grain. Between 19, Purdue has documented 2,050 cases that resulted in an injury, fatality or required emergency extrication by first responders. Its newest report was released earlier this summer. It also tracks incidents involving grain transport vehicles (trucks, wagons, railcars) injuries occurring inside of confined spaces due to exposure to powered mechanical components, such as augers falls from or into confined spaces and other types of agricultural confined spaces, including forage storage silos, storage tanks, and manure storage and transport facilities. Purdue University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program documents incidents involving grain storage and handling facilities at both commercial and on-farm locations. There's an emergency call: "Two individuals involved in a grain entrapment." Then the wail of that first siren. A camera pans up the side of a grain bin. Now she listens to his latest musical track through earphones, digging past the scream and crash of guitars and drums, straining to find peace in what might be the last remnant of her son's voice.Īs a parent, "SILO's" images made me ill. Cody's mother clashed with him, an aspiring punk rocker, only that morning. Let us not forget the guttural anguish of mothers in these tragedies. They all put aside differences and personal demons to rescue the son of a small town. "SILO's" farmer, who goes by the name "Junior" and who is Cody's employer, the volunteer fire chief who tends the gas station, and the knowing sheriff are familiar characters everywhere in rural America. This is a story familiar to too many in rural America, where real grain-related accidents happen three, four, five times a month. The second story of "SILO" builds outside the grain bin. It is a historic fact, as well, that one in five of all agricultural confined spaces accidents - a term including grain accidents - involve young adults and children under 21. If you are trapped in grain, there's a 50-50 chance you'll come out alive a 50-50 chance you'll die. That man's fate plays out in real-life entrapments 50% of the time. A hand remains visible, but only for moment. Viewers see him sink helplessly into a vortex of corn, his calls for help silenced suddenly. ![]() In case we are to wonder at Cody's fate, we are reminded of the man below him who Cody tried to save. As he inhales, the pile squeezes tighter upon his chest. Cody struggles for breath in a place where the physics of moving corn make every shallow breath more difficult than the last. The fireman hangs from the rungs of a steel ladder. The odds of the next one look increasingly bleak. ![]() ![]() When Cody chokes out a question about the fireman's plan, his response is: "We keep you breathing." Life is down to breath. Frank, his firefighter rescuer and calm encourager, buys seconds and oxygen a little bit at a time. Eighteen-year-old Cody is trapped chest deep in corn. It is a well-done feature film, two stories of time - one where the viewer instinctively feels death just seconds away and the other played out among the moralities of a small farming community. "SILO" is not a grain bin safety film, done large. It was a thought on my mind as I settled to watch the feature film "SILO," a new, fictional, based-on-reality story written around grain entrapment. It takes eight seconds for life to be engulfed in yellow gold. It is a foundation for beauty, and it protects us from disease.Īnd in that same kernel is death. In each yellow kernel of corn there is life. Here, "SILO's" crew is scouting a location. Bins are as common as sunshine across the Grain Belt - a modern miracle of grain handling or a fatal trap when safety is ignored. ![]()
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