Originally posted by twigflipper
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Out in Wall, read bout it in the paper today...
Sad stuff.
From San Angelo Standard Times
WALL - A 12-year-old boy died Wednesday night after he was run over by a tractor he was operating near his home in Wall, Tom Green County sheriff officials said Thursday morning.
Jason Block was operating a tractor-powered shredding machine around his family’s property when he was attacked by a swarm of bees about 7 p.m., sheriff spokesman Lt. Bill Fiveash said. While he tried to get away from the bees, the farm equipment ran over the boy, Fiveash said.
Fiveash said the boy was flown to Shannon Medical Center, where he died from a combination of bee stings and blunt force trauma. An autopsy will not be performed.
Sgt. Johnny Walker is investigating the case for the sheriff’s office.
Deputies were called to 5550 Farm to Market Road 765 about 7:15 p.m. in response to a report of a major crash, according to an incident report filed Thursday. When they arrived five minutes later they found Carl Block, the boy’s father, leaning over the unconscious boy with a blanket, trying to keep bees away.
Medics arrived and placed the boy in an ambulance, and at 7:40 p.m., the medevac helicopter AirMed1 arrived and flew the boy to Shannon, the report said.
Block told deputies he received a call from Blake Wilde, who had been driving through the field behind the house when he saw Jason pinned between the shredder and Block’s pump house, surrounded by bees.
Wilde called 911 and Block, who wasn’t home at the time of the incident, the report states.
Block pulled his son away from the equipment and pump house and put him on the ground about 15 feet away from the bees.
He told deputies his son mowed the grass around the house often and never had any problems with bees in the area.
Fiveash said the boy was stung about 100 times by European honey bees, a determination made because of the barbed stingers. Sheriff officials said the Block family owned bees.
Travis Lane, president of the Concho Valley Beekeepers Association, said he knows of a few bee-related deaths over the past few years in the general area, some of which involved machinery, such as bulldozers. Mowing, weeding and hoeing can also disturb a hive.
Vibrations and loud noises can be perceived by bees as a threat to their nest and prompt an attack meant to defend the hive, he said.
“That’s basically their home and when they feel threatened around that they’ll defend it,” Lane said.
Some things people can do if swarmed is put as much distance as possible between the bees and themselves, preferably by getting into a vehicle or building and closing any openings. He said sometimes you can avoid an attack by staying aware of surroundings.
“(Jason) did what normal people would do under those circumstances,” Lane said. “It’s certainly a sad situation for them. Devastating.”
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