The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office says the victim of Wednesday’s industrial accident in Lakeville was a 50-year-old Scottsville man.
Sheriff Tom Dougherty says John Higgins was working with a crew from Crop Productions Services, unloading fertilizer from a railroad car on a siding. But at some point, the sheriff says the fertilizer got stuck in the covered hopper car’s discharge chutes, and Higgins climbed into one of the hatches on top of the car to see if he could free it up. He sank into the fertilizer and was suffocated before help could reach him.
The workers and employees of the lumber yard next door tried to dig the victim out with shovels, but couldn’t get to him in time.
The investigation is continuing with a number of agencies involved, but the sheriff says every indication is this was simply a tragic accident.