MEDARYVILLE, Ind. - A 9-year-old boy was rescued after sinking above his waist in corn inside a grain wagon at an Indiana farm.

Purdue University farm safety expert Bill Field said the accident should be a wake-up call that children especially should not be on top of a pile of grain in a wagon no matter how innocent it might seem.

“The kids are pretty vulnerable that they should never be on top of that load of grain. I just think why risk it,” he said.

Pulaski County Sheriff Jeff Richwine said the boy, after he was pulled out of the grain on Sept. 27 near Medaryville, was looked over by paramedics but did not require hospital treatment.

According to the police report, his father told investigators the boy climbed into the wagon full of corn and sank into the kernels.

The father said the door at the bottom of the wagon was opened to let the corn out, believing that would relieve the pressure from the weight of the grain and allow his son to be pulled out, according to the police report.

However, the father said the child began sinking deeper into the corn and the door was shut to stop the flow of grain from pulling him down more, according to police.

Two men were trying to dig out the boy when emergency responders arrived at the scene.

Pulaski County Sheriff’s Deputy Alec Berger used to work at a grain elevator and used his knowledge from that job to help with the rescue. He found two pieces of sheet metal and placed them around the boy so corn could be shoveled out from around his body.

Without the metal barrier, grain sliding down from above would have kept filling up the hole they were trying to dig around his body.

“His training that he got from working at an elevator is where he knew kind of the ins and outs of this kind of rescue,” Richwine said.

Firefighters from Medaryville then arrived with a large metal tube designed specifically for such a rescue and placed it over the boy.

“They got the rest of the grain out from around him and got him out of there,” Richwine said.

Field said grain wagon accidents do not occur as often as people being trapped in the grain of a silo. Nevertheless, he said children especially should not be on top of a pile of grain in a wagon.

Field said a child in a wagon riding on top of a pile of grain just harvested might look harmless and produces fond memories, but it comes with the potential for tragedy.

He said deaths and successful rescues have occurred after somebody forgot about the child being on the grain before opening the door at the bottom of the wagon. That can quickly pull a child beneath the surface of the grain where they’re at risk of suffocating or dying from inhaling the kernels, he said. 

Field also said a child from the drain-like suction can also be pulled into the grain head first and get caught in the hole where the kernels are pouring out. “Once you open that gate, the grain comes out really fast,” he said.

He said a vast majority of grain wagon victims are boys ages 11-14.

Field said being on top of a pile of grain is even riskier if the kernels, when brought in from the fields, are dry.

Grain containing more moisture is not as easy for a person to sink into and doesn’t empty out of the wagon as swiftly. “If the grain is dry enough, it’s just going to rush out of there and pull anybody into that flow,” he said.