Delaware State Police investigating the death of a Maryland man who was fatally injured while fixing farm equipment in a field outside Laurel.
The accident occurred at approximately 2:30 p.m. as a 61-year-old Parsonsburg, Maryland man was operating a tractor, with a square baler near 11244 Whitesville Road.
Attached behind the square baler was a “Bale Band-It ,” a piece of equipment that bands 20 bales together before discharging them as a single block onto the ground behind the machine.
The man had a problem with the equipment and called upon his 27-year-old son to help fix the problem. After clearing bales from the machine, the son told his father he would restart the machine.
As the son walked to the tractor to do this, his father took a seat on a nearby bale of straw. When the son entered the tractor and activated the machine, he heard a scream and turned to see his father trapped inside the Bale Bandit.
The investigation suggests the father possibly observed a broken band inside the machine and was attempting to remove it when the machine restarted. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
There are no signs of foul play. The body was turned over to the Delaware Division of Forensic Science. The name of the victim will not be released under a State Police policy in such cases.
