A tractor accident Monday afternoon southeast of Neola has claimed the life of a long-time area farmer. Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department Traffic Accident Investigator Mark Burbridge told KJAN News 71-year old William Brich, of rural Neola, died when his Oliver tractor got too close to a ditch, and rolled down an embankment into a creek. 

The tractor was pulling a flatbed trailer hauling brush. Burbridge says the load was hauled up to an area to be dumped near a creek, when Brich likely backed too close to the drop-off point. The tractor slid into the ditch and tumbled or rolled before coming to rest.

The accident happened at around 3:45-p.m. on property Brich owned off of Rosewood Road. Burbridge says the man was found on the embankment, and apparently was hit by the tractor as he was tossed-off. The tractor ended-up in the creek.