Man Dies After Stepping in Auger
Great Falls police officers were called to the Montana Specialty Mills facility at 525 3rd St. N.W. around 1 a.m. Tuesday to assist medical crews responding to a report of a man who had lost his leg and paged a county coroner shortly after. Cascade County Sheriff Bob Edwards said Thursday that Ladd had died from blood loss after stepping in an auger. (Courtesy of the Great Falls Tribune – June 2014)
Augers and drag conveyors are everyday tools in our trade. The destructive power of these conveyors is often underestimated. In order to convey volumes of dense material, large electric motors attached to high-torque gearboxes are required. These conveyors are not stopped by the soft tissue and bone of a human arm or leg and that is why a tragic outcome is almost guaranteed when these powerful mechanical tools are mixed up with human body parts. Unfortunately for Barry Ladd, pictured above, help did not arrive soon enough and he bled to death.