Lawn Mower Safety Fatality File

Standi Coroner identifies man killed in mowing accident outside YWCA

BLOOMINGTON — A 25-year-old Normal man died in a work-related accident Wednesday outside the YWCA McLean County, county coroner Kathy Yoder said.

The accident did not involve clients, children or staff of the YWCA, 1201 N. Hershey Road, Bloomington, said Christy Germanis, a YWCA spokeswoman. 

Yoder said that the man, identified as Hunter W. Arbuckle, had been mowing the lawn outside the YWCA. 

“Preliminary autopsy findings indicate that Mr. Arbuckle died from traumatic compressional asphyxia sustained as the operator of a riding lawnmower that overturned,” Yoder and Bloomington Police said in a media release late afternoon Wednesday.

Toxicology testing is pending.

Bloomington police and firefighters were dispatched to the 1200 block of North Hershey Road for a medical assist call for service after a man was found trapped under a large mower. Officers investigated the scene and called the coroner’s office.

Yoder pronounced Arbuckle dead at 8:36 a.m.