Man dies after mower traps him underwater

Emergency personnel respond to a call that a man went into a pond with his mower. Photo Provided

Emergency personnel respond to a call that a man went into a pond with his mower. Photo Provided

By Shelley Smith

ssmith@saisburypost.com

A Woodleaf man has died after being pinned underwater by a riding lawnmower for 26 minutes this morning.

The accident happened on a farm near Cleveland just before 11:20 a.m.

William “Bill” Russell, who owns the farm at 1285 Phifer Road, said the man, who goes by Johnny, was mowing the grass along the edge of a pond on the property when the mower tipped over and into the water.

Russell said he saw Johnny — no one at the scene knew his last name — fall into the pond and drove his four-wheeler over to the edge to help the man.

“He was just right around the edge there, going really slow, and he flipped over,” Russell said. “I went and tried to pull the mower off of him and tried to pull it off. It was a big mower, a Bobcat.”

Russell, covered in mud from his attempts to get the mower off Johnny, said he couldn’t do much to help. He has a prosthetic leg, and the weight of the Bobcat proved too much for him.

Another worker, James Reddick, said he was working on the hill near the home and heard the lawnmower cut off. Then he heard Russell yelling.

“I thought he maybe hit something when I heard the lawnmower shut down,” Reddick said. “It’s crazy.”

Medical responders pulled Johnny out of the water at 11:44 a.m., according to emergency radio communications. They got him onto the shore and started CPR before taking him by ambulance to Davis Regional Medical Center in Statesville.

Russell said Johnny had worked for him a few hours every morning for the past three years and that he lived with one of his friends down the road.

“He was a real hard worker. He was honest,” Russell said. “When we’d go out of town he’d watch over.”

Russell said Johnny — no one at the scene knew his last name — has a brother in Mocksville, but he didn’t know of any other relatives.

The Rowan-Iredell and Cleveland fire departments responded.

Contact Shelley Smith at 704-797-4246.