Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report for Michigan: Farmer Drowned While Removing Stop Logs From Water Level Control Structure

摘要

In June 2008, a 76-year-old male farmer, who was a member of a volunteer cooperative drowned, as he was removing wood stop logs from the drain's water level control structure to relieve a high upstream water level. The structure had three sections six feet wide. Each section had at its base, one 12-inch wide wooden stop log that was turned on its edge. Stacked on top of the 12-inch stop log were four 8-inch wide stop logs, also turned on their edge. The five stop logs were held in place by a channel in the concrete piers. At the time of the incident, each section had its full complement of stop logs. A large amount of precipitation and the area's soil composition caused water to run off to the field's drainage ditches and into the county drain resulting in high upstream water levels in the drain and ditches and field flooding.