TOWN OF MENOMONIE — A 66-year-old retired deputy from the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department has died in a tractor accident after falling out of the bucket and being run over by the tractor.
The victim has been identified as Craig S. Koser, who retired from the sheriff’s department in 2009 after 24 years of service with Dunn County and several years with the Menomonie Police Department before being hired by the sheriff’s department.
Deputies from the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department and personnel from the Menomonie Fire Department responded shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday, December 5, to a report of a man who had been run over by a tractor in the 3400 block of 420th Avenue in the Town of Menomonie, according to a news release from Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd dated December 5.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they learned Koser had been riding in the bucket of the tractor and that the tractor had bounced over a bump in the road, causing him to lose his balance and fall out of the bucket. The tractor had been traveling eastbound on 420th Avenue.
Koser was pronounced dead at the scene.
A friend of Koser’s had been driving the tractor, and the two men were out doing snowmobile trail maintenance and using the tractor with a bucket to put up signs along the trail and to clear the snowmobile trails for the coming season.
“Since his retirement, Craig has spent his time volunteering for different organizations and driving school bus. Craig will be deeply missed by family, friends and his brothers and sisters at the sheriff’s office,” stated an updated news release from Sheriff Bygd that was released on Friday.
