Investigators in St. Croix County say a father trying to clear snow off of his driveway with a plow attached to pick-up truck ran over his four-year-old son, killing the boy.
The St. Croix County Sheriff’s Department says the incident occurred just before noon Tuesday in Star Prairie Township, when Daniel Fitzgerald told his son Collin to play in a snow fort in the yard while he cleared the driveway. According to a report from police, Daniel watched as the boy went into the fort and then started using the plow.
Police say that as Daniel was removing snow from in front of the garage, he partially pulled in and then backed up. It was then that he noticed blood on the snow and quickly discovered the boy was injured.
According to police, Collin suffered “massive head injuries” as a result of being run over by the pickup truck. He was transported to a New Richmond hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
St. Croix County Sheriff John Shilts called the incident an “accident by all accounts” and “one of the most tragic events that anyone could ever have to deal with.”