While it would be preferable to either die peacefully or go on living as a brain in a super-advanced robot body, there are some exits from this life which you’d really rather avoid.

One of those deaths is perishing in a grain bin, which is unlikely to be a way anyone expects to shuffle off this mortal coil, but it does happen.

Over in the US it has happened to more than 1,225 people in the past 60 years, and until recently only around a quarter of people stuck inside a grain bin survived the experience – but that proportion has recently improved to about half.

There have been plenty of other deaths around the world from people who became trapped in a grain bin, demonstrating that it’s quite a problem that people might want to know how to survive.

People either fall into the grain bin or are already working in it when it gives way beneath them, leaving them to sink into an agricultural pit of doom.

The most common cause of getting stuck is from people who are ‘walking the grain’, which is to say they’re inside the bin and walking around on top of the grain when it’s being poured out of the bottom of the bin.

Someone walks on a chunk that seems stable but suddenly they’re plummeting down towards potential death.

Should that ever be you, be grateful that people have made simulations replete with panicking animated people to teach you how to survive.

In the event that a grain bin has you in its clutches, you’re better off not trying to clamber your way out of the shifting grain, as it’ll be very difficult to gain purchase on anything and escape.

Instead, you should attempt to create a pocket of breathable air in front of you so you have the oxygen to keep breathing and shout for help in the hope that someone will come and get you out.

A team of researchers in Germany found that a person would only be able to free themselves from this sort of calamity if the grain had stopped moving and you were only in it below the knees.

Their study indicated that the average person wouldn’t be able to get out if the grain was beyond this point, and that if you sunk up to your waist, then you’d need some help.

If you were in there up to your chest or even worse, you’d need a professional rescue, and it only takes seconds to sink in and a few minutes to suffocate – whereas a rescue attempt might require hours.

Scarily enough if you fell in, you could sustain other injuries which made keeping that air pocket in front of you clear, as bodies recovered from grain bins have shown evidence of blunt force trauma from the grain including one person who suffered a dislocated jaw.

Probably best to stay away from them altogether, really.