COOPERSVILLE, MI (WHTC) - A 74-year-old farmer trying to clear weeds from his fields east of Coopersville died over the weekend in an apparent accident.

According to Ottawa County Sheriff’s Sergeant Jon Ditmar, Donald Lowing was riding his tractor on Saturday morning outside of his home off of Cleveland Street near 40^th Avenue, when he climbed out of the running machine in order to remove by hand some weeds in a ditch. The machine then rolled forward and down the embankment, and the scoop bucket in front of the tractor knocked the man down and pinned him on one side of the ditch.

Family members called 911 once they spotted the incident, but the severity of the head and upper torso injuries was apparently too great, for Lowing was pronounced dead at the scene by the Ottawa County Medical Examiner’s Office. The matter remains under investigation. Funeral arrangements were incomplete as the work week began.