Police name young man killed in tractor accident

File photo / Martin Sykes

Police have named the young farm worker killed yesterday after he was pinned under a tractor in northern Wairarapa.

Samuel Pratt, 22, from Ashhurst, was using a tractor to turn over soil at a farm off Huia Iti Road at Pongoroa, 95km north-east of Masterton.

A concerned colleague went looking for Mr Pratt at 9.30pm, and found the tractor in a paddock on its roof halfway down a steep hill, police said.

Mr Pratt was trapped under the tractor and had already died before he was discovered. Heavy machinery was used to lift the tractor unit and rescue his body.

The death, which was not being treated as suspicious, was being investigated by police on behalf of the coroner.

The Department of Labour was also investigating.

- NZPA