A Mount Maunganui man suffered serious injuries after being thrown from a rolling farm truck - the fourth serious accident in the Western Bay in as many days.
The 34-year-old victim is today in Waikato Hospital with injuries including fractures after the ground spreader he was riding tumbled 30 metres down a bank near Pongakawa on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a 15-year-old boy was run over by a tractor on a Paengaroa orchard. Last night, he remained in a critical condition in Tauranga Hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).
The same afternoon an 80-year-old man crashed down a bank near Soldiers Rd in the Kaimai Ranges. He is in a serious but stable condition in ICU.
The following night in the Kaimais, a man died when the heavy truck and trailer unit he was driving plunged at least 10m down a bank near the Kaimai summit.
Last night, the man involved in the farm accident near Pongakawa was recovering in a stable condition in a ward.
Rotorua-based BayTrust Rescue Helicopter pilot Barry Vincent said he understood the man was working for a fertiliser company at the Rotoehu Rd farm at the time of the accident.
"It appears he was putting a bit of fertiliser on the top of a ridge and it looks like the spreader has rolled to the bottom," Mr Vincent said.
"In the process of the spreader rolling he has been ejected from the vehicle."
It is not known how long the injured man lay at the scene. Farm workers noticed he was missing and searched, finding him and calling emergency services about 2pm.
"So we shot out there and spent about 40 minutes getting the man sorted and stabilised," Mr Vincent said.
"The vehicle was extremely damaged in the rolling sequence. It's lucky he landed clear of the vehicle but he still sustained some serious, extensive injuries."
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president John Scrimgeour said ground spreaders were dangerous pieces of machinery.
"When we are using them we are very conscious of when it is wet or slippery. Some drivers are very nervous about going places [in them] but in my experience it has been that most drivers are pretty careful and especially err on the side of taking care about their own welfare. That is the way it should be," Mr Scrimgeour said.
Operating ground spreaders was a high-risk operation and people needed to ensure ground conditions were good.
"I would have thought they would have been excellent [on Wednesday] given the dry conditions, but there are other factors and you want to make sure people don't take too big of a risk," Mr Scrimgeour said.
The Department of Labour is investigating.
In 2011, there were 321 serious harm notifications in the agriculture industry reported to the Department of Labour.
Last year a 59-year-old Aongatete man died after the tractor he was riding rolled down a hill, trapping him underneath in a pond on his Lund Rd property.