Accompanying his father on a routine delivery, 13-year-old David Yenni of Sonoma was killed Tuesday after becoming trapped in a truckload of wheat being unloaded at a Petaluma feed store.
The accident took place at about 4 p.m. at Hunt & Behrens, a feed supplier on Lakeville Street in Petaluma. Police said the boy climbed on top of an open trailer filled with wheat as his father, Norman Yenni, owner of Sears Point Farming Co., began emptying it.
The teen became trapped when the grain began funneling out an opening at the bottom of the trailer into a below-ground storage pit, according to Lt. Mike Cook. The moving grain is likened to a heavy liquid. Once engulfed by it, the boy could not free himself.
His father heard a cry for help and shut down the unloading operation. Several workers from the yard rushed to join the effort of digging the boy out. When pulled free after about ten minutes, he was not breathing. Within the hour, after ambulance transfer to Petaluma Hospital, he was pronounced dead.
David was soon to enter the eighth-grade at Adele Harrison Middle School. He was a member of local Boy Scout Troop 16, a dedication he shared with his older brother, Andrew, and his mother, Nadine.
