Tractor operator killed in Hastings

Reporting to Historic City News from the scene, St Johns County Fire-Rescue Public Information Officer Matthew Sara informed us that a Pedro Menendez High School student has lost his life after the tractor he was operating, overturned in a ditch and pinned him underneath.

The incident occurred on Cowpen Branch Road near CR-206 in Hastings, Sara said.

“The victim, 18-year-old Jared Revels, was dead by the time emergency medical personnel arrived,” Sara told reporters. “He either jumped, or was ejected, landing beneath the tractor.”

Revels, traveling third in a line of three tractors, was driving on an elevated dirt roadway between two potato fields on a farm owned by his family — who are with his body at the scene.

The investigation is continuing to determine if Revels drove off the road, overturning into the water-filled ditch, or, if the ground crumbled beneath the tires to cause the fatal crash. The medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.