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Worker suffocations persist as grain storage soars, employers flout safety rules

By Jim Morris and Howard Berkes

The 2010 deaths of a 14-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man in an Illinois grain bin highlight unsafe practices, spotty enforcement.

Excerpts from this story referencing "Piper":

"… ess.” Chris Hamby contributed to this story. …"

"… ned a vigil outside. In the end, Whitebread, 14, and Pacas, 19, were dead. Piper, 20, avoided suffocation by inches. Whitebread, compact and athletic, was …"

"… tarted at Haasbach the day before. “He prayed for his life,” survivor Piper said of Pacas’s last moments. “He said all he wanted to do is see his …"

"… . “I had no idea that someone could get trapped and die in the corn,” Piper told investigators with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety an …"