Penns Valley teenager dies after being trapped under piece of farming equipment
A teenage boy died Tuesday after he was trapped under a piece of farming equipment that weighed upward of 10 tons, a Centre Hall Volunteer Fire Company captain said.
The 16-year-old Amish boy was headed out to the farm’s fields along the 2900 block of Lower Brush Valley Road when he was run over by a wheel of a horse-drawn manure spreader. He was then trapped between two steel wheels, captain Forrest Rishel said.
It was not immediately known how long the teen was trapped. First responders were dispatched about 9:50 a.m.
He died of blunt force trauma, Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers said. His death was ruled accidental.
“They’re not rare, but they’re also not often,” Rishel said of the frequency of fatalities involving farming equipment. The 12-year veteran on the fire service said it was the first he could recall involving a manure spreader.
There were 39 farm and agricultural fatalities in 2020 in Pennsylvania, according to data analyzed by Penn State researchers. About one-fourth of deaths were among those 19 and younger.
That represented a “significant increase” from the previous five-year average, when an average of about 27 farming fatalities were reported per year between 2015 and 2019.
Centre LifeLink EMS, Geisinger Life Flight and the Miles Township Fire Company also responded.
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 2:17 PM.