LEBANON — The Warren County Coroner’s Office ruled Tuesday that the death of a 31-year-old man whose body was found in a gravel pit Monday afternoon was accidental, the sheriff’s office reported.
Worker’s found the wrecked car of Mark Gates, 31, of Middletown around 1:30 p.m. Monday in a gravel pit owned by Oeder and Sons Sand and Gravel in the 1600 block of Mason Morrow Millgrove Road.
Gates was driving along Mason Morrow Millgrove Road on Sunday night when he somehow lost control of his car. The car traveled off the highway into the quarry, where it struck a large mound of gravel and came to a halt, out of the line-of-sight of the road, the sheriff’s office said.
Based on tracks around the car, Gates got out of the passenger side door, but the vehicle then shifted in the gravel, trapping Gates beneath the car in a large pool of water, where he drowned.
The sheriff’s office reported no signs of foul play and have ruled the incident an accident.
It took a wrecker several hours to remove the car from the gravel pit on Monday.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.