Inspection Detail

Inspection: 112890538 - Charles W. Proctor

Inspection Information - Office: Springfield Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1, age 18, was the only employee of a non-incorporated, family-owned, dairy farm. His duties included operating farm equipment, performing repairs, and feeding livestock. He was not responsible for milking the cows. At approximately 2:45 p.m. on October 10, 1997, his employer saw him driving a tractor with an attached manure spreader toward the corn silage trench, about one-half mile from the main house. At approximately 6:15 p.m., the employer's wife came home and noticed that no lights were on in the old barn and that the heifers had not been fed. She informed her husband, and they both set out to look for Employee #1. The employer went to the corn silage trench and, finding the tractor parked parallel to it and approximately 10 ft away, called out for Employee #1. There was no answer. The employer looked under the manure spreader, and then began digging in some corn silage that had fallen from the face of the pile. After some digging, the employer saw Employee #1's jacket and pulled him backward out of the silage. He turned Employee #1 over and checked for vital signs. The local police and a member of the State Police C-Pak Unit arrived a short time later. Employee #1 was declared dead at the scene. Apparently when the silage broke off the pile it fell on him; the autopsy report, completed February 11, 1997, stated the cause of death as asphyxia.

Keywords: ASPHYXIATED, COLLAPSE, AGRICULTURE, UNSTABLE SURFACE, STRUCK BY, BURIED