| Hoosier farmer, 80, dies in lethal grain bin mishap |
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| By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor
FRANKLIN, Ind. — Farm and family is a way of life for the Hendersons in Johnson County, Ind. And on Aug. 27, the family lost a major part of that spirit when their father Dick Henderson, age 80, died in a tragic grain bin accident.
The 911 call came in around 9 a.m., when Henderson’s son Mark, 50, noticed his father, Dick had disappeared from the top of the 10,000 bushel grain bin while they were unloading corn.
The bin, nearly 75 percent full at the time, was a perfectly inverted cone inside, and according to Mark, an avid grain producer, the corn was flowing well and no one really needed to be inside the bin at all.
“There was no reason for him to be in there,” he explained. “The corn was not bridged up at all, it was totally against my wishes that he was up there.”
Mark, reflecting on an argument he had with his father on Friday (Aug. 24), said he specifically told his dad not to climb up or inside the bin.
“What really shocked me is that he was so careless, it was extremely out of character for him,” said Mark, who farmed 3,200 acres this year with his son Scott, brother Brent and late father Dick. “You can’t really fall into this type of bin. I think something got away from him up there, we’ll probably never really know.”
“They were running the unloader at the time, and he could’ve got caught in the flow of the corn, taking him to the bottom and there just isn’t much you can do to stop it,” added Bill Field, professor of agricultural and biological engineering and farm safety expert at Purdue University.
As a reminder, Field urges farmers to turn off the unloader before entering a bin, to alleviate a potential entrapment.
“We had 31 bins to clean out, we try to be careful all the time, but this was his (Dick’s) corn we were hauling, so he probably felt an obligation to help out,” Mark said.
Losing a father
A family man with safety always on his mind, Mark remembered the tragic morning vividly.
“My son Scott was working on a truck at the time and saw him (Dick) up there looking inside the bin. He didn’t think much of it, except about the argument we had on Friday,” he recalled.
Shortly thereafter, Mark, who was in a semi loading corn at the time, noticed his dad missing, he checked the area, and his father was no where to be found. Minutes later Mark climbed up the side of the bin and still couldn’t see his dad.
“I took a big pole, just to see and because I just had this feeling, and stuck it down to the bottom of the bin. I didn’t feel anything until I moved it over a little and I hit him. By that time, my son Scott had already gotten the torch out and started cutting holes in the side of the bin,” he remembered.
Following the emergency call and within minutes, dozens of neighbors, family friends and local farmers arrived to rescue the beloved local farmer and help move corn out that was beginning to spill out.
Field, who is currently researching and developing new rescue strategies for grain bin entrapment said that cutting holes in the sides of a bin is one of the ways to spill grain out quickly and away from the victim. The questions still remain, how big should the holes be and how many people should be in and outside of the bin during the rescue, he admitted.
Neighbor and family friend Julie Rice, 39, first noticed something was wrong when she saw a sheriff’s car pull into the Henderson’s farm driveway.
“I called his wife Rosie to see what was going on and she said Dick is caught in the corn, I thought she meant the corn field not in the corn itself,” said Rice, who lives across the street with husband Glenn. “Once we got there we were on our hands and knees moving corn out of the way.”
According to Rice, friends and rescuers worked for more than an hour to reach Henderson.
“He was very strong even in an 80 year-old body, we knew if he was in there alive that he wouldn’t give up,” said Rice, remembering the vigor of her late neighbor. “Although when the rescuers arrived it immediately felt like it was a recovery not a rescue, that unfortunately didn’t happen.”
“There were probably 40 some people on the scene with front end loaders moving grain away from the base of the bin where it had spilled out,” added Field, who assessed the scene Monday morning.
Bargersville Fire Department Capt. Paul Bird, one of the first official rescuers on the scene, told reporters that “there was just too much corn and he was just too deep.”
Loved farming, helping others
After an hour and 17 minutes of searching, Bargersville rescuers retrieved Henderson, who lost his life in the tragic farm accident.
Neighbors described him as an extremely active member of the family farming operation who loved helping others out.
“I’m not a farm girl and this man taught me everything about living in the country,” said Rice. “He helped my kids in 4-H and even helped us build a round pen for our horses.”
Henderson’s son remembered his late father as someone willing to work hard, despite his aging body.
“He drove the combine for us last fall and did a remarkable job,” said Mark. “He did what he loved until the day he died.”
“It’s amazing how the community came together for the family,” beamed Rice. “When I looked they’re were probably 80 vehicles and trucks at the farm set to take all the corn that was on the ground to market before it went bad.”
“That can be a dangerous situation too, we’re talking about a lot of grain that needs to be moved out of the way,” said Field. “There is a potential for someone to be injured in this situation when there are a high number of loaders and people in close proximity trying to move grain.”
Field, who has been studying farm safety for more than 30 years, added that it is estimated that approximately one out of every nine farms annually, experiences a farm-related injury requiring medical attention. Since 1980, Indiana has lost more than 700 Hoosier farmers due to farm-related accidents, he concluded.
Mark, who was grateful for the help of the friends and family on the scene said the Bargersville Fire Department “used a lot of good sense and did well” in retrieving his well-loved father from within the bin.
Henderson is survived by his wife Rosie, their three children, Mark and wife, Linda; Brent and wife Leigh Jaye, Carol and husband Mark Habig; grandchildren Scott Henderson, Crystal Henderson, Jay and Lane Henderson, Ben Habig and sister Carolyn Duckworth Rogers.
“He was an all around good guy, a lot of fun to be around,” said Henderson’s son Mark. “I’ll miss him.”
Although Farm World staff could not trace an original date of subscription, Mark said his father was a long-time subscriber and an adoring fan of the farm newspaper, dating back to the early days of Eastern Indiana Farmer.
This farm news was published in the Sept. 5, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/5/2007 |
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