Three employees of Sabina Farmers Exchange Inc. in Wilmington, Ohio were found working inside a grain storage bin while a mechanical sweep auger, a machine used to push grain remaining at the bottom of a storage bin toward the bin's opening, was operating. This exposed the workers to severe injury and death by being engulfed in flowing grain. OSHA has cited the company for three repeat and six serious safety violations at the company's grain bins in Wilmington and Sabina, with proposed penalties of $50,051.
"A worker can be completely submerged in flowing grain within 60 seconds. More than half of all grain engulfments result in death by suffocation. Allowing workers to move grain while a sweep auger is running can cause the worker to become entangled in this dangerous equipment and submerged in the flowing grain," said Bill Wilkerson, OSHA's area director in Cincinnati. "Grain bin operators have a responsibility to protect their workers by taking the necessary steps to turn off all moving equipment before allowing workers to enter grain bins, if they must."