A 64-year-old man was fatally run over while standing behind his unoccupied vehicle outside his home in Wright County, authorities said Tuesday.
Robert M. Rohland, of Montrose, died at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale on Aug. 7, two days after being struck in the 100 block of Garner Circle, the Hennepin County medical examiner's office said.
Sheriff's Chief Deputy Todd Hoffman said it wasn't until Rohland died that his office pieced together the chain of events.
According to Hoffman:
After Rohland and his wife returned home from shopping late in the afternoon, she went inside and he went to the trunk to retrieve the groceries.
A neighbor soon came out and discovered Rohland on the pavement and complaining of abdominal pain. The car was half in the drive, with the rear portion in the street, and the driver's door open.
Rohland's wife said he came into the house and then went back out because he was having trouble getting the trunk to open.
"That's when the vehicle started moving, and he accidentally ran over himself," Hoffman said, who described the driveway as "not steep, but very definitely [has] a grade."
