Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

A 53-year old Ohio man was killed on Wednesday after he was apparently thrown from the Honda all-terrain vehicle he was driving near a soybean field. According to Ohio’s Chronicle-Telegram, accident investigators and the people who knew Dennis Ralich are both deeply saddened and baffled by the circumstances of his death. Ralich lived in Eaton Township, a community just Southwest of Cleveland, and was a 30-year employee of the Domestic Relations Court in Lorain County, Ohio.

Ralich’s 20-year-old son Steven discovered his father’s overturned ATV on the path near the field where he had been driving. Some time later he discovered his father laying unresponsive in the soybean rows. Emergency medical professionals from a LifeFlight helicopter attempted unsuccessfully to revive Ralich. They could not determine a time of death but estimate that Ralich likely died instantly from the multiple injuries he sustained in the accident.

According to the Chronicle-Telegram, the Lorrain County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an investigation and will forward the results to state safety officials. The County coroner, Paul Matus, told the paper that “there was some damage to the ATV from overturning, and there may have been some other issues with the machine.”

The accident is puzzling to authorities because Ralich was known a skilled and responsible driver, the terrain was flat where the accident occurred, and investigators believe that speed was not an issue.

The sheriff’s department is analyzing Ralich’s ATV for signs of mechanical failure, but they are also investigating whether Ralich may have hit an animal.

Besides his son Steven, Ralich leaves behind his wife Holly and their 23-year-old daughter Carla.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under News, Yamaha Rhino Rollover Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.