Boy, 9, Dies When Tombstone Falls on Him
A tombstone fell on a third-grader and killed him during a field trip to a Revolutionary War cemetery Wednesday.
Nine-year-old James Wies appeared to have died of a skull fracture, said Richland County coroner’s investigator Paul Jones. He said the boy jumped atop the 5-foot-tall tombstone and grabbed it when it toppled backward.
“It was just a freak accident,” Jones said. “With the injury he sustained, and with the way it landed on him, it was definitely fatal. No one could have done anything.”
School Supt. Mark Stock said the field trip was an annual event for third-graders.
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