CAPE COUNTY MAN DIES WHEN TRACTOR OVERTURNS

LEEMON - A 63-year-old Cape Girardeau County man died Wednesday morning when the farm tractor he was operating overturned on a steep hill in a field on his farm off County Road 607, two miles south of Leemon.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter identified the victim as Gerald "Sonny" Froemsdorf of Jackson Route 3. Froemsdorf was pronounced dead at the scene by the coroner.

Carpenter said the sheriff's office was notified of the accident at about 1 p.m. He said Froemsdorf had been doing some clearing near a wooded area on his farm with a bush hog attached to the tractor.

"He apparently made a turnaround on a steep incline and the tractor, which did not have a roll bar, tipped over on top of him, pinning him beneath the tractor," said Carpenter.

The accident was discovered by Froemsdorf's wife, who had gone to Jackson to purchase a part for the tractor. Carpenter said when she returned she saw the overturned tractor and called authorities. The Cape Girardeau Fire Department rescue truck was called to free Froemsdorf's body.

The body was taken to McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson, where funeral arrangements are pending.

Carpenter said it was the third fatal tractor accident he has investigated in the county this year.

He pleaded with area farmers to exercise extreme caution when operating a tractor on hilly terrain. "If you operate a tractor or other farm implement please be extremely careful when working on steep hills," Carpenter said.

Carpenter and agricultural safety officials urge farmers who have tractors without roll bars to have them installed on their tractors. "In case of a tractor rollover, the roll bar can save your life," he said.