Kars farmer killed in accident

Father finds overturned tractor in pond

Every spring and fall, a mix of manure and water is pumped from two storage ponds to fields at the Lindsay family farm, west of Kars.

The job has its dangers, like so many farm activities, and something went terribly wrong Wednesday night as Mark Lindsay drove a tractor near the ponds, carrying a large container of fuel for equipment.

His father, Eldon Lindsay, said Thursday he had returned from a trip to Kemptville and could see lights in the area where Mark was working at about 8 p.m.

Eldon went to sleep, but Mark’s wife, Anne, called some time later and said she didn’t know where her husband was, Eldon said.

Eldon couldn’t see any lights outside. He got dressed and drove down to the ponds.

“Once I saw the big wheels of that machine upside down ... There was no sign of him. It gives you a bad feeling,” he said.

“I looked down and I yelled, ‘Mark, Mark?’ There was no answer.

“So I got the truck real close ... I could see there was nothing I could do. I had to get help, and that was going to be slow, but I knew I had no choice.”

Ottawa Fire Services received a call around 10 p.m. reporting that a man was trapped beneath an overturned tractor in a pond on the farmland along Second Line Road, south of Roger Stevens Drive.

Three tractors and a backhoe were used in the rescue effort. It required “significant and extensive extrication,” paramedics said.

The 39-year-old man was in cardiac arrest, according to paramedics, who used “advanced resuscitation efforts” on the way to the hospital. Lindsay was pronounced dead in hospital Wednesday night.

Officials with the Ministry of Labour were at the farm Thursday to investigate. An autopsy was also to be conducted, Eldon Lindsay said.

Mark was very familiar with driving the tractor, but it can be tricky to steer, his father said. The fuel tank might have affected the balance, he added, and a piece of equipment in the area also made the space around the pond tighter than usual.

Mark Lindsay was a hard worker, his father said. Mark had attended South Carleton High School and the Kemptville Campus of the University of Guelph, and ran a cow operation and grew soybeans and corn at the farm, which has built up in the family over generations. Mark had built a new barn two years ago and lived in a house near the farm, Eldon said, as people stopped by to offer condolences and lend a hand.

Speaking at a news conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday morning, NepeanCarleton MPP Lisa MacLeod said it’s always a tragedy when the community loses someone so young.

“My community has faced its fair share of grief in the past number of months and obviously my heart goes out to that community,” she said, hinting at the Sept. 18 collision between a VIA passenger train and an OC Transpo bus that claimed six lives.

“The people in North Gower and in Kars are very genuine people. They get up in the morning, they pay their taxes, they go to work, and they raise their families, and they are truly solid and good citizens of not only this city but of the entire country, and I know that there’s a lot of grief in the community today.”