Travis Ashcraft Idaho 13 year old teen killed in freak farming tractor accident. Boy was alone and had been driving tractor in incident.
A 13-year-old Idaho boy has died after being run over by a tractor he had been driving in what authorities have described as a freak farming accident.
Travis Ashcraft, was killed early Saturday while driving a tractor on private land in Sugar City, EastIdahoNews.com reported.
The teen was already dead when Madison County deputies responded to a field adjacent to the Newdale Cemetery, Sgt. Isaac Payne told the Idaho Statesman.
Ashcraft was alone and had been driving the tractor prior to the fatal accident. No foul play is suspected, Payne told KPVI.
Payne said it continued to remain unclear what exactly happened.
‘He was pretty much a go-getter from the beginning,’
The teen was a freshman at Sugar-Salem High School and ran a business with his three brothers called Farm Favorites Treats and Sweets that sold baked pies at farmers markets.
‘He was pretty much a go-getter from the beginning,’ Travis’ mother, Jamie Ashcraft, told EastIdahoNews.com. ‘He was a very determined boy. It didn’t matter what I said, he went and did what he needed to do … He lived life to the fullest.’
Travis also excelled in music and sports, running for his high school’s cross-country team and recently joining its jazz band. Outside of school, he earned his Eagle Scout award before turning 13, his mother said.
‘We know that Travis touched everybody’s life that he encountered,’ the mother added. ‘There are so many people at the farmers market he would joke and talk smack with them, and they loved him.’
A viewing will be held Tuesday at the Flamm Funeral Home in Rexburg. The teen’s funeral will follow on Wednesday at the LDS Sugar City Stake Center, where the service will be livestreamed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
An online fundraiser set up to help offset the teen’s funeral expenses had eclipsed $15,570 as of Tuesday early evening, EST.
‘Our heart goes out to the family and I have full confidence that their community will rally around them in support,’ Payne told the Idaho Statesman.
The investigation is ongoing.
