An emergency incident in a storage bin where a person sinks partially into a mass of loose grain and cannot get out. The immense friction and weight of the surrounding kernels lock the victim's legs or torso in place, requiring specialized rescue tubes to extract them. If the grain continues to flow, entrapment quickly turns into total engulfment.
Heard on the job
We had a grain entrapment last fall when a guy tried to break up a crust with a pole and fell through to his waist.
Do not mix it up with
- Grain engulfment: Entrapment is when someone is trapped but their head is still above the surface, whereas engulfment means they are completely buried.