A Union Township man was severely injured on Sunday, apparently after falling from his tractor while clearing snow and then being run over by it, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said.

According to police, at 4:10 p.m. the roommate of John E. Williams, 50, found Williams lying face down in the snow of their residence in the 500 block of County Line Road, a large pool of blood near his head.

Blood was also dripping from Williams’ right ear and the responding officer observed “road rash” marks on his lower back, police said.

Williams’ roommate advised that approximately 50 minutes earlier Williams had gone outside to plow snow from the driveway and when he hadn’t returned went to see if everything was all right.

The tractor itself, an older model with a drag blade fixed to the rear of it, was found touching a wooden fence about 20 feet from where Williams was lying, police said. The tractor was not running but its key was in the ignition and the fence appeared to have been broken and pushed down by the tractor.

The officer also observed a long piece of orange rope wrapped around the tractor’s axle, similar to a piece of rope lying on the ground near Williams, police said.

“It appears (Williams) fell off the tractor and was run over or dragged,” police said. “Nothing at the scene indicates foul play.”

Williams was transported to Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Hobart with a severe head trauma and brain bleed, then taken to a Chicago-area hospital for further treatment, police said.