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Silos Loom as Death Traps on American Farms
NY Times ^ | 10/28/12 | John Broder

Posted on 10/30/2012 3:26:59 AM PDT by DemforBush

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I know there are a lot FReepers who work or have worked on farms. I've slopped hogs and fed chickens a summer or two myself, but never had to deal with anything like a sticky grain silo. I'm curious as to everyone's insight on this one.
1 posted on 10/30/2012 3:27:09 AM PDT by DemforBush
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To: DemforBush

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.


2 posted on 10/30/2012 3:31:48 AM PDT by Traveler59 ( Truth is a journey, not a destination.)
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To: DemforBush

Automobiles and women are also death traps.


3 posted on 10/30/2012 3:34:16 AM PDT by AlexW
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To: DemforBush

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.


4 posted on 10/30/2012 3:34:47 AM PDT by Portcall24
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To: Traveler59

Besides getting a void inside near the bottom that can collapse, they can also develop a false top dome that is thin, but making one think it is full.....you push on it, step on it and it collapses...dangerous stuff..


5 posted on 10/30/2012 3:37:20 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: DemforBush

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)


6 posted on 10/30/2012 3:37:26 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: AlexW

“Automobiles and women are also death traps.”

You forgot liquor....and drugs.


7 posted on 10/30/2012 3:39:21 AM PDT by JoeDetweiler
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To: DemforBush
The kneejerk response is to say "one death is too many." But I'm not a kneejerker.

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.

8 posted on 10/30/2012 3:40:29 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Global Warming is a religion, and I don't want to be taxed to pay for a faith that is not mine.)
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To: DemforBush
No one should enter a bin when grain is bridged overhead...

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.

9 posted on 10/30/2012 3:47:56 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: ClearCase_guy
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.

And THAT is what this article is ALL about! Expanding the government and LIMITING family owned farms and removing teenagers from farm work.

If you removed ALL family farms and teenagers from farming, you would see your food prices SKY-ROCKET! Because, once the "family" aspect is out of the business, the government will begin mandating and subjugating farms work rules to the point of massive cost increases!

JUST SAY NO! No, to government mandates! I grew up working on farms and in the 1970's silos were known as death traps - stay clear unless you got a reason to be in/near it and then only for a specific task - PERIOD! I would be willing to bet that there are more "office" related deaths than 26 farm deaths, but they have already squeezed as much out of office-safety as they can cost-effectively squeeze!
10 posted on 10/30/2012 3:51:13 AM PDT by ExTxMarine (PRAYER: It's the only HOPE for real CHANGE in America!)
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To: DemforBush

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.


11 posted on 10/30/2012 3:53:57 AM PDT by LibertyRocks
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To: Portcall24

Wetting it down? I don’t understand. When I worked on a farm, we did all we cold do to get alfalfa dry before we stored it, else the moisture helped to create just the right conditions with pressure of the weight, to cause the stored alfalfa to spontaneously combust. I knew of several barns that burned as a result.


12 posted on 10/30/2012 3:55:32 AM PDT by Real Cynic No More
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To: AlexW
"...Automobiles and women are also death traps..."

Sometimes in more ways than one...


13 posted on 10/30/2012 3:55:57 AM PDT by rlmorel (1793 French Jacobins and 2012 American Liberals have a lot in common.)
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To: ExTxMarine

Well said. People want safety guaranteed, and it is impossible to do so. To expect government to do so means huge bureaucracies, costs and other overhead leading to inefficiency.

And people still die and are hurt.

Liberals want to legislate common sense, and it cannot be done.


14 posted on 10/30/2012 3:59:45 AM PDT by rlmorel (1793 French Jacobins and 2012 American Liberals have a lot in common.)
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To: DemforBush

Best friend in jr. high died in a silo due to poisonous gases from crops, as I recall.


15 posted on 10/30/2012 4:21:34 AM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
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To: DemforBush

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”?


16 posted on 10/30/2012 4:27:24 AM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
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To: rlmorel

I lost a high school friend in a farm accident. It was a sad thing but no one assigned blame or anything because it was a lapse of common sense on his part and that’s all there was to it.

He died when he crawled under the bucket of a front end loader full of rocks and a hydraulic line chose that moment to give out as they do. We all knew better than to do such a thing but he just had a lapse in judgement and chose the quick and easy way over climbing back up onto the tractor and moving it.


17 posted on 10/30/2012 4:30:08 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: DemforBush
well we always knew the risks involved, but unfortunately someone had to go in on rare occasion. I can remember using m-80's taped to the end of a pipe trying to break loose bridged grain to avoid having to step in but it rarely worked. We always used a rope tied around our chest and under our arms (yea I know) and had someone manning the top. I always wondered if it would even do me any good if something went bad. I guess it would have been easier to fish my dead body out.

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.

18 posted on 10/30/2012 4:30:24 AM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: DemforBush

Not as many die in silos as die in a small abortion clinic? Wonder what the Commie Times thinks about that?

Pray for America


19 posted on 10/30/2012 4:44:20 AM PDT by bray (Nov 6, tell Obama to Stand Down!)
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To: DemforBush

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.


20 posted on 10/30/2012 4:44:40 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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