Worker’s leg amputated after ‘terrible incident’ with running grain bin, feds say

An Illinois company violated safety regulations that led to a 27-year-old worker’s leg being partially amputated, federal officials said.

The incident happened on Aug. 15, 2022, at Topflight Grain Cooperative in Atlanta, Illinois, about 45 miles northeast of Springfield, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The paddle conveyor of a soybean bin was left running when the worker and two others went inside the bin to clean it, investigators said. Paddle conveyors are designed with “endless strands of chain” that scrape material.

Investigators said the worker suffered the leg injury after he worked over the unguarded holes in the bin.

“The company failed to place a guard or cover over the holes leading to the equipment, or utilize guardrails or travel restraint systems in order to protect the workers from falling into the equipment,” OSHA said in a Feb. 13 news release.

OSHA has proposed fines of $629,946 against Topflight Grain Cooperative. The federal organization said the company failed to protect its workers by not turning off the equipment or testing the bin’s atmosphere before the workers entered.

Bill Donovan, OSHA’s regional administrator in Chicago, called the accident a “terrible incident.”

“Injuries can happen in seconds, but incidents like these can be prevented when employers develop and follow company wide safety procedures each time workers enter grain bins,” Donovan said in a news release.

The company was also fined in 2021 when soybeans collapsed inside a bin, which caused an employee to be engulfed up to their waist.

Topflight Grain Cooperative are members of Illinois’ Grain and Feed Association and move “40 million bushels of grain through its facilities” to seven Illinois counties, the Department of Labor said.