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Last updated on Thursday, June 16, 2016
(BROWN CO.) - A Brown County man was killed Tuesday afternoon after a tree struck him while he was driving a tractor.
65-year-old Jerry Michael Chapel died of blunt force trauma to the head, according to Brown County Coroner Earl Piper.
The Brown County Democrat reports, emergency crews were called to Chapel's home in the 2500 block of Lanam Ridge Road after Chapel's wife discovered his body seated on the tractor. She had been looking for him for at least an hour.
The tractor, with a grader bucket on it, was on a trail heading to the back of the couple's property. Since there were no witnesses to the accident, Piper believes the bucket ended up getting stuck on a low-lying tree across the trail.
This caused the 2- to 3-inch-diameter tree to stretch in front of Chapel as he drove before snapping back at him. The tree was caught under one of the tractor's tires and wrapped around Chapel, Piper says.
"It was probably hanging all the way across the trail, slightly above what he normally could have driven through without the bucket up I am sure," Piper added.
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