20-foot pile of pinto beans kills Colorado man
Picture of coffee beans in a thresher at the Hacienda Villa Martha in the municipality of La Gloria, department of Risaralda, Colombia, on August 12, 2011.
A 56-year-old man was killed on Thursday when he was buried under a 20-foot mound of pinto beans at a warehouse in Colorado, according to the Daily Telegraph. Raymond Segura Jr. was pronounced dead at the Brush, Colorado, facility of the Kelley Bean Company after attempts to reach him alive failed.
Morgan County Undersheriff Dave Martin said emergency personnel were called to the site at 11:30 a.m. local time after hearing reports of a worker trapped in a pile of loose pinto beans, reported MSNBC. Dozens of rescue workers and even four inmates from the county jail spent an hour digging through a 20-foot high mound of the beans to get to Segura, but he was dead when crews reached him.
"We moved several tons of beans to get to him," Martin said, according to the Telegraph.
Segura had worked at the warehouse for between 12 and 15 years, reported Reuters. The cause of the accident, how the victim became trapped and the exact cause of death are still unknown and under investigation.
Kelley Bean Company, a third-generation family operation, has been in business since 1927. It specializes in producing dry edible beans, like the ones involved in the accident at its Colorado warehouse.
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