Illinois man dies after falling from UTV cargo bed in Oconto County; driver accused of drunken driving

OCONTO – An Illinois man died after falling from a UTV onto a town of Doty roadway Sunday night.

An Oconto County Sheriff's deputy arrested the operator of the utility terrain vehicle on suspicion of drunken driving.

The incident occurred about 9:07 p.m. at Boulder Lane and Oconto County T, about nine miles west of Mountain.

As the UTV accelerated, the 56-year-old West Chicago man fell off the cargo bed of the vehicle and hit his head on the pavement, said Chief Deputy Darren Laskowski.

An ambulance took the man to Aspirus Langlade Hospital in Antigo, where he died.

The driver, a 53-year-old Waukesha man, is being held at the Oconto County Jail on a charge of operating a UTV while intoxicated causing injury, Laskowski said.

He had not been charged or made his initial appearance in court by Tuesday morning.

Besides the driver and the man who died, there were two other passengers on the UTV, a rider in the front seat and another person in the cargo bed.

This was the third off-road vehicle death in Wisconsin this year, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

Separately, a Menasha man was injured in a four-wheeler crash Monday morning in the Oconto County town of Townsend.

The crash occurred about 11:15 a.m. on an ATV trail near the 16000 block of Hillside Lane, about a mile north of the town hall.

A friend on another vehicle saw the 32-year-old tip over, apparently because he was traveling too fast, Laskowski said.

An emergency medical crew treated him for a shoulder injury and he was taken to the Antigo hospital.

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Contact Kent Tempus at (920) 431-8226 or ktempus@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Illinois man dies after falling from off-road vehicle in Oconto County