Industrial mower kills man with South Dakota connection

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A man with connections to South Dakota is dead after an industrial mower hit him alongside an Oregon highway.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports that 49-year-old Keith Ericson was sleeping along a highway Tuesday in Douglas County, Oregon, when a state Department of Transportation worker mowing along the shoulder hit him.

Oregon Department of Transportation official Angela Beers-Seydel says it was a “horrific accident.” Ericson was pronounced dead after police arrived.

The agency mows the grass along highways about three times a year and each workers are told to search the grass for obstacles but somehow Ericson’s body was overlooked.

Ericson’s last known addresses were Rapid City and Santa Monica, California.