Kansas Man Suffers Electrical Shock in Harvest Accident

After cutting a soybean field, an auger boom that would have transferred the soybeans into a semi came in contact with power lines.

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fall_soybeans
(Diane Davis)

A central Kansas man has suffered severe electrical shocks while helping to harvest a soybean field.

The Salina Journal reports that 24-year-old Zachary Short was flown to a Wichita hospital Saturday with critical injuries.

Saline County Sheriff’s deputy Chad Flesher said that after cutting a soybean field, an auger boom that would have transferred the soybeans into a semi came in contact with power lines. The current caused sparks, and Short grabbed a fire extinguisher.

Flesher says Short was vaulting over the hitch between the tractor and grain cart when he was thrown backward. Short collapsed against the frame of the grain cart. One of the other men helping with the harvest found a plastic shovel and was able to move Short away from the electric current.

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