Hansel died in tractor accident

A rural Portland man died Tuesday after his tractor flipped on top of him.

Roger V. Hansel, 68, was attempting to pull his Chevy pickup truck out of the mud with his Ford garden tractor in a pasture southeast of his property at 3413 W. 100 South, according to a Jay County Sheriff’s Office incident report. The tractor flipped over, trapping him underneath it.

Hansel’s wife, Pamela, found him pinned under the tractor. He asked her to get help and to remain calm, the report says. She told police she couldn’t get her phone to work and had to walk a quarter mile to get neighbor James Lugar and call emergency personnel. By the time Lugar and Pamela Hansel returned, Roger Hansel did not appear to be breathing, according to the report.

Jay Emergency Medical Service responded to the call about 4 p.m. Tuesday. (The report says a “significant amount of time” had passed since the accident.) Hansel was pronounced dead at the scene. Jay County coroner Michael Brewster confirmed it appeared he suffocated and likely also had injuries from being crushed.

“It truly is tragic that stuff like this does happen,” Brewster said. “It’s never easy when someone dies like that in an accident, and our hearts go out to the family.”