Incident Summary:
On July 21st at approximately 8:00 P.M. on the 8700 Blk of Hwy 5 in Morcom Township, (North of the Side Lake area), the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call that an adult male had been in a skidsteer tractor and that it had fell into a pond on the property and had been underwater for almost 30 minutes.
While emergency personnel were responding to the privately owned hunting property where this occurred, family members had attempted to rescue the driver and lone occupant of the tracked skidsteer by pulling out the tractor, but were unsuccessful. Once numerous rescue personnel were on scene, they were able to remove the tractor, search the pond, but the occupant was not located.
The St. Louis County Sheriff's Rescue Squad was able to use an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the pond, and with its live camera and sonar technologies, were able to locate the male deceased at the bottom of the man made pond, which was approximately 8 ft. deep.
It appears that the male had been mowing grass with the tractor next to the man made pond and got too close to the edge, causing the skidsteer tractor to fall into the pond upside down, ultimately trapping the driver underwater.
The incident remains under investigation by the Sheriff's Office, with the assistance of the Midwest Medical Examiners Office in Ramsey, MN.
Identification of the male will be released once family has been notified.
The Sheriff's Office was assisted by the Sheriff's Office Rescue Squad, MN DNR, Bearville Fire Dept. and First Responders, and Cook Ambulance.
Click to edit this placeholder text.
Click to edit this placeholder text.
Authority: Sgt Wayne Toewe
Date: 07-21-2019 Time: 0200
Update**Update**Update:
The identity of the male who died as a result of this accident is being released. Deceased is identified as Sheldon D. Sandberg, age 50, of rural Cook, MN.
Authority: Lt. Jason Akerson Date: 7/22/19 Time: 12:45 PM
|
