60-year-old is killed by hay bales falling from flatbed trailer, Wisconsin cops say

A 60-year-old man died on Saturday, Jan. 14, after hay bales fell on top of him from a flatbed trailer, Wisconsin cops say.

The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. in Rock Elm Township, about 70 miles east of Minneapolis, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

A 66-year-old man was driving a 1998 Peterbuilt tractor-trailer delivering hay bales to a farm when one of the loads shifted from the trailer, the sheriff’s office said.

The load of hay bales fell from the flatbed, striking 60-year-old John Robey, according to the sheriff’s office.

Robey, from Elmwood, was taken by an ambulance to a hospital, where he died, authorities said.

While they are rare, hay bale deaths have happened before. A 1,500-pound hay bale killed a 49-year-old man in August in Delaware, according to WPVI.

Mike Edwards, the cellist and a founding member of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), died in 2012 when a hay bale fell down a hill onto his van, Billboard reported.

This story was originally published January 16, 2023 at 11:16 AM with the headline "60-year-old is killed by hay bales falling from flatbed trailer, Wisconsin cops say."