Many times, farm accidents are tragic and unpredictable. In Hartford, Michigan, a subcontractor, who was working for a company out of Grand Rapids, was conducting routine testing when the unimaginable happened at a dairy farm. The man was killed Friday when a corn silage stack broke loose and buried him.
The subcontractor was identified as John Garth Cummings, 35, of Middleville, according to a news release from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department. The cause of the accident was a 30-foot high pile of corn silage that, for unknown reasons, broke away from the stack and fell on Cummings. The sheriff’s department and other first responders were called to the dairy farm around 6:30 a.m. after a worker found him unresponsive. Even though employees of the farm and first responders performed life-saving procedures, he was pronounced dead at Watervliet Hospital, police said
The corn silage, which is fermented high moisture food and fed to livestock, is normally stored until needed. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration was contacted and will investigate.
When we hear of such unfortunate events, we try to remember every day is a gift. This is why we take farm safety so seriously because you never know when one accident can turn tragic. Our sympathies are with the Cummings’s family and friends.
