One expert calls accident 'unique'
TAMPICO – Officials aren’t saying exactly how two girls were electrocuted by an irrigation system on Monday.
But one witness reports that there was a lot of water in the field. And water and electricity are a deadly mix.
Still, that doesn’t necessarily explain the accident. People work around electric pivot irrigation systems all the time – safely.
Some residents believe that a lightning storm the day before put enough electricity in the irrigation system and water below to shock someone on Monday.
That theory doesn’t fly, an expert says.
“The electric charge of a bolt of lightning will dissipate after a strike,” said Molly Hall, executive director of Springfield-based Energy Education Council/Safe Electricity, a nonprofit group.
But she said lightning could have damaged the irrigation system, including its safety features.
Hall stressed she had heard about the deaths, but didn’t know the particulars. She said she was speaking only in general terms.
“This is a unique situation,” she said.
The authorities blame an electrical shock for killing Hannah Kendall and Jade Garza, both 14 and from Sterling.
They worked for Monsanto Company. The company trains its employees to walk around the long pivoting irrigation equipment, rather than go across it.
Why does the company give this advice? A spokeswoman didn’t have an immediate answer Monday.
Even those experienced with such equipment have been electrocuted.
In 2003, Dale Freund, 55, was electrocuted while trying to repair a pivot system in Fremont, Neb. He was by no means a rookie; he owned a company that sold such equipment.
Experts say irrigators should be careful with their systems.
“Many irrigators have received minor tingles while working around electrical irrigation machinery,” the University of Missouri’s Robert Schottman said in a paper years ago. “Under pressure to keep the system running, they tend to ignore warning signs until serious injury occurs.”
Proper grounding is a must, experts say.
In his 1993 paper, Schottman said Nebraska found that 37 percent of pivot systems were potentially hazardous because of the lack of grounding conductors. Nearly 40 percent didn’t have ground rods installed, he said.
More recent data couldn’t be found.
“One of our safety recommendations is that irrigation system wiring be grounded,” Hall said. “You want to have a qualified electrician check the wiring. That’s your typical maintenance.”
ComEd has been involved in the local investigation, company spokesman Bennie Currie confirmed Tuesday.
“As far as details as to what happened, I can’t give you any of that,” he said.
It’s not clear why the utility would play a role. The Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department said the girls were electrocuted when they came into contact with the irrigation system. No official has suggested ComEd’s power lines were a possible culprit.
For a second day Tuesday, Monsanto suspended detasseling operations in the area. Spokesman Tom Helscher wasn’t sure if his company would resume today.
“We are talking with both the supervisors of the detasseling crews and the farmers in the fields,” he said.
Helscher said Monsanto was trying to figure out if it needed to change its procedures on how to deal with pivot irrigation systems.
“We want to do everything we can to help the community heal from this,” he said.
The company employs more than 1,000 detasselers in the area during the summer.