Coroner advises seatbelts, roll bars on farm tractors

The tractor accident which killed farmhand Henry Whale when it rolled might have been averted if the machine had been fitted with a front roll bar and a seatbelt.

Coroner Tim Scott recommended such safety measures in an inquest into the death of Henry Manukau Whale, who died, aged 43, of crush asphyxia on March 8 last year while at work on Mangaohane Station in Taihape.

Whale was following another farmhand on a small Iseki tractor to attempt to pull free another tractor which had become stuck out on the station when the accident happened.

At the time of the accident, he had been told not to drive the tractor because it had a bent break shaft. It also appeared to be a farm rule that the "little tractor" was used exclusively around the house, and not to be used further afield.

As Mr Whale was negotiating a gentle corner on a sloped gravel track, the tractor veered up a sheep tract on to a steeper bit of land and rolled.He was trapped, alive, underneath it.

His colleague had a cell phone, but reception was poor. Mr Whale asked him to stay with him, but he instead went to get help.

It took him less than 10 minutes to reach nearby cattle yards, and less than 10 minutes further for help to arrive and get the tractor off Mr Whale.

A Department of Labour report speculated that Mr Whale may have been saved if help had come earlier but Mr Scott found it was highly unlikely. Even if help had arrived eight or nine minutes earlier, Mr Whale would not have survived the helicopter trip to hospital, he said.