Lawnmower Slips From Jack, Kills Cemetery Worker

PROVISO TOWNSHIP, Ill. (STMW) -- A cemetery worker was killed when a lawnmower fell on his head Friday afternoon in west suburban Proviso Township.

The man -- identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as 40-year-old Francisco Chavez -- was an on-duty maintenance worker at Oak Ridge Cemetery when he was injured about 3:55 p.m. Friday while attempting to fix a hydraulic pump on a lawnmower on a jack, Cook County Sheriff's spokeswoman Liane Jackson said.

He was underneath the lawnmower when it slipped off the jack, Jackson said.

Jackson said the Hillside Fire Department initially took the man to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 4:29 p.m. Friday, the medical examiner's office said.

A Saturday autopsy determined Chavez, of 3745 Winthrop Way in Downers Grove, died of head injuries from a lawnmower slipping from a jack, the medical examiner's office sad. The death was ruled an accident.

Nobody else was injured, Jackson said.

Cook County Sheriff's police are investigating. Hillside police also responded to the scene.