3 family members die after falling into feed silo

Thursday 01st October, 08:48 AM JST

MIYAZAKI —

Three people are dead and one remains unconscious after a family of four fell into a silo used for storage of livestock feed in the town of Gokase, Miyazaki Prefecture, on Tuesday, police said Wednesday. The family had fallen on top of each other and police believe they suffocated in the silo, which was 1.2 meters in diameter and about 4 meters tall.

Police identified the dead as local farmer Kazuo Miyazaki, 60, his wife Shizue, 59, and his mother Tomiko, 79. Miyazaki’s grandson Riku, 7, remains unconscious. Police suspect the three adults fell into the silo while trying to rescue Riku, who had already fallen in.

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Latest 15 of 22 Total Comments Show All

elbudamexicano at 10:43 AM JST - 1st October

RIP old folk from Miyazaki. What a horrible way to go!
Disillusioned at 11:33 AM JST - 1st October

Grain silos are known killers, so the question remains, how did the kid fall in?
nihonjinsurfer at 11:36 AM JST - 1st October

USNinJapan2, I think you're right. I used to work in these things. If it was only 4 meters, there was already hay in the silo. These things usually go pretty far down into the ground. Can't imagine how bad it'd be to work in them, that far down south.
KallyPygous at 11:55 AM JST - 1st October

The kid fell in because he's a kid. They were probably soon unconscious because they would have been squeezed very hard.
smithinjapan at 01:01 PM JST - 1st October

Very sad.
spudman at 03:13 PM JST - 1st October

in a grain silo it's like quicksand. You move you sink into a sea of wheat or maize. Best thing to do is not struggle. Near impossible to do. A rope and wide plywood sheets would have helped but WTF why would three adults be needed? Wow the great grand mother was a young mother in her day.
Yelnats at 03:39 PM JST - 1st October

People are not 4 meters tall. Second, it is the grain dust that can kill you. It is also highly explosive.
Gombei424Canada at 04:12 PM JST - 1st October

RIP,people.
Disillusioned at 06:14 PM JST - 1st October

KallyPygous - The kid fell in because he's a kid.

Let me rephrase the question for the single dimension thinkers:

It is common knowledge that grain silos are killers. Why did a four year old kid have easy access to it?
spudman at 07:42 PM JST - 1st October

he was 7. they go anywhere they like at that age!
truthliberates at 09:52 PM JST - 1st October

Very sad story. I pray the child recovers without any serious lasting health problems.
kavikahi at 10:47 PM JST - 1st October

Im not satisfied with the explanation.
Shaolin7 at 11:24 PM JST - 1st October

This is a very tragic incident, especially so considering it was an attempted rescue of their grandson. I hope he makes it out okay.
ablestmage at 12:26 AM JST - 2nd October

Could have easily been a murder-suicide planned to look like an accident.
DarkKnightNine at 07:12 AM JST - 10th October

Wow! Don't know what I was thinking. For some reason I always think 1 meter is equivalent or about the same size as one foot. Being American, I always forget the metric system of measurement. In this case, I was imagining something that was only 4ft. tall. Thank you to all the readers who very nicely explained my judgement error.