A major piece of farm machinery owned and operated by a large four generation family farm based in Zeeland and Decatur malfunctioned on the open roadway and the most inopportune time yesterday, resulting in serious injury to a passing motorist in a pick up truck. The Memorial Day accident is under investigation by Van Buren County Sheriff Dale Gribler.
Gribler says Deputy Scott Schmitt and Sgt. Tony Evans responded around 3pm Monday to a truck versus farm tractor incident on 6th Avenue near County Road 665 in Bloomingdale Township. Tractor operator Aaron Moll of Boersen Farms had reportedly just finished plowing a field pulling a 50-foot wide disc & harrower device. He was headed westbound on 6th Avenue when the disc on the driver's side lost its hydraulics.
Unfortunately, at that same time Shirley Noble was driving her Ford Ranger eastbound when the failed hydraulics lowered the driver's side wing of the disc literally shearing off the roof of her pick up, pinning her inside. The 79 year old woman needed to be extricated from the decapitated truck cab and transported to Bronson Hospital for her injuries. She was last listed in serious condition at the hospital.
Boerson Farms has been serving some 15 counties in Southwest Michigan for four generations as a family farm operation for decades. They have approximately 9-million bushels of grain storage throughout Michigan, and farm both their own land and land that they lease regularly. The tractor and disc also took out multiple rural mailboxes along 6th Avenue according to investigating officers.
Tractor operator Moll, a 22 year old employee of Boersen Farms is from the Kalamazoo area and was unhurt in the confrontation near Bloomingdale.
