$16 million awarded to families of 2 teens killed in Mount Carroll grain bin accident

By Dorothy Schneider
Rockford Register Star
Posted Feb. 6, 2014 @ 8:47 pm
Feb 6, 2014 at 9:26 PM

MOUNT CARROLL - A jury in Carroll County has awarded $16 million to two families whose sons were killed in a grain bin entrapment incident in July 2010 in Mount Carroll.

Following a two-week trial, the Carroll County jury deliberated just eight hours before granting $8 million to each of the families of two teens who were working at Haasbach LLC, a Consolidated Grain and Barge company grain elevator, that summer.
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Two workers - 19-year-old Alejandro Pacas and 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread - died, and a third worker, Will Piper, was injured in the entrapment incident. The workers were in the grain bin to help the corn flow while machinery was running. The three were trapped in corn more than 30 feet deep. Rescue workers cut holes in the sides of the bin and drained thousands of pounds of corn to free them.

According to the third worker, Will Piper, he and Pacas jumped in to save Whitebread who was crying for help as he was being buried as if quicksand. Pacas, trying to free Whitebread, jumped into what became a sinkhole, and they both suffocated.

6 hours ago • By Thomas Geyer

A Carroll County, Ill., jury has awarded $16 million to the families of two teens killed in a grain bin accident in July 2010.

Wyatt Whitebread, 14, and Alex Pacas, 19, died of “traumatic asphyxiation, due to being engulfed in corn,” officials said, while working at a Consolidated Grain and Barge bin operated by Haasbach LLC in Mount Carroll. Another worker in the bin, Will Piper, then 20, was injured.
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Four people were working in the grain elevator when the incident occurred on July 28, 2010. According to Durkin, Whitebread and Pacas were standing on the grain in the bin, pushing the grain down to go to a conveyer.

Whitebread began sinking in the corn, and Pacas and Piper went to help him. Whitebread and Pacas suffocated in the corn. Piper was engulfed to his neck but was rescued after spending about six hours in the bin. A 15-year-old worker who was in the bin got out and called for help. The incident happened shortly before 10 a.m.

Posted on 1/25/2011

Transcending barriers, organizations band together

The loss of life which occurs as the result of a grain bin engulfment is truly a tragedy. The death of 14 year old Wyatt Whitebread and 19 year old Alex Pacas in Mt. Carroll, Illinois at the end of July 2010 has sounded the alarm bells throughout the country that farmers and the commercial grain industry need to remain vigilant on the issue of safety.

As a result of the tragedy, groups in Illinois have formed the Grain Handling Safety Coalition (GHSC) whose mission is to prevent and reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities across the grain industry spectrum through safety education, prevention and outreach. The Coalition includes farm groups, educational institutions, state departments, OSHA, the commercial grain industry, family members, NIOSH, rescue personnel and others interested in eliminating engulfments in grain bins. The Coalition started meeting last fall and is developing public service announcements which will air this spring. In addition, the Coalition is working on educational projects focused on raising awareness in the farm community.