14-year-old boy killed when John Deere Gator driven by his younger brother crashes in yard in Lapeer County

MARATHON TWP. (WWJ) -- A teenager is dead after a crash in a John Deere utility vehicle over the weekend.

According to the Lapeer County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded at around 2:30 p.m. Saturday to the scene in the backyard of a home on Klam Road in Otter Lake, located within Marathon Township.

Investigators found that the crash involved 2023 John Deere Gator — a Utility Terrain Vehicle or UTV — being driven by an 11-year-old boy.

According to the sheriff's office, the child was trying to turn the UTV, when it hit a bush at the edge of the yard and rolled on its side. The vehicle landed on top of the boy's 14-year-old brother, who'd been sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle.

There were several attempts to get the vehicle off the teen before he was finally freed, officials said. He was taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries.

The sheriff's office noted that there was a parent present while the boys were driving the UTV.

Neither of the boys was wearing a seatbelt, officials said.

In a news release, the sheriff's office called this incident a "preventable and tragic fatality," and noted that the investigation remains ongoing.