By Margie Wuebker
mwuebker@dailystandard.com The Mercer County Sheriff's Office has released the names of two other snowmobile drivers involved in a Dec. 24 accident that claimed the life of a Willshire man.
Joshua D. Brandt, 20, 3731 Mercer-Van Wert County Line Road, died after the accident at Parkview Memorial Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind. He was critically injured while driving a snowmobile in a field west of Rockford.
Brandt was driving through the field at a high rate of speed when he apparently tried to cross a creek off Winkler Road, east of Jordan Road, in Blackcreek Township. His snowmobile hit the east bank catapulting the driver and a passenger into a field. Brandt hit his chest and lost his helmet, according to a friend who called 911.
Two other snowmobile drivers -- Kyle Luginbill and Trent Gamble -- also landed in the creek. Luginbill reportedly saw the creek and attempted to slow down. His vehicle slid down the bank into the creek. Gamble apparently did not see the creek and his snowmobile also landed at the bottom.
Gamble and Celina-area resident Brent Mosier, a passenger on Brandt's snowmobile, were taken by ambulance to Van Wert County Hospital. Both were treated then released. Brandt, a 2002 Parkway High School graduate, was taken to the same hospital and then transferred aboard a helicopter ambulance to the Fort Wayne hospital, where he reportedly died during surgery. |
