O’Fallon alderman, deputy county coroner dies three days after tractor accident
An O’Fallon alderman has died of injuries he sustained in a tractor accident while mowing his lawn last week.
Dan Witt, 67, whose friends called him “Danny,” represented Ward 7 for five years.
“Everybody is broken up, obviously,” said his son, Jeff Witt, 43, shortly before his father’s death on Sunday afternoon. “It was such a tragedy, and it happened so fast.”
Dan Witt was chair of O’Fallon City Council’s public works committee and a personal friend of Mayor Herb Roach.
They met through the O’Fallon Booster Club and other youth organizations. Witt’s wife, Janet, babysits Roach’s three grandchildren two days a week.
“He was a very honest man, and he was always willing to help others,” Roach said. “He volunteered to do things all the time. A lot of it was behind the scenes, stuff that nobody knew he did, and he was a good family man. He will be missed.”
Witt was mowing his lawn with a tractor on Thursday when he fell off, according to his son. His right leg was badly injured by the blades.
“We don’t know if he was knocked off by hitting a tree or he had a medical issue,” Jeff Witt said. “We have no clue.”
Dan Witt was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in O’Fallon and quickly helicoptered to St. Louis University Hospital.
Doctors amputated his lower right leg, performed surgery on his chest and diagnosed minor spine and spleen injuries, his wife had reported on Facebook.
“He had lost so much blood that over the next couple of days all of his organs failed,” Jeff Witt said.
Dan Witt worked as a pathologist’s assistant at St. Elizabeth’s for 42 years before he retired in 2018, according to his LinkedIn page.
Since that time, Witt had served as a St. Clair County deputy coroner. He was elected alderman in 2017.
“I’m running because I believe the citizens deserve to have an alderman who will listen and do for the people instead of doing for other officials and their friends,” he stated as a candidate for a BND profile.
Witt and and his wife also have a daughter, Melanie Nesbit of Shiloh.
Witt was a Vietnam War-era veteran and a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Metro-East Lodge No. 262, American Legion Post 137 and the O’Fallon Booster Club Board of Directors.
Witt is the second O’Fallon alderman to die this year. Kevin Hagarty, 54, who represented Ward 3, died of natural causes on March 30.
This story was originally published June 12, 2022 at 5:21 PM.
