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A wool buyer was run over and trapped by his own vehicle in a freak accident as he left a farm yesterday.
The 65-year-old slipped as he stepped from his utility vehicle to open a gate to leave the farm in Waitomo Valley Rd, Otorohanga.
Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance pilot Simon Lewis said the Cambridge man grasped the gear shift as he slid, putting the ute into reverse and running himself over.
"The freakish bad luck continued when the vehicle struck a post causing it to stop right on the man's leg," he said.
Otorohanga deputy chief fire officer Neville King said the farm's owner had headed off towards the back of his farm on a quad bike after meeting the man.
"The guy just came up to get a sample of wool," Mr King said.
A woman in her home 200 metres away heard the man's cries and went with family members to help. A rural post delivery person and the group jacked the ute off the man's leg.
The woman said it was "one of those tragic, horrible things that doesn't normally happen.
"If the post had been back three inches [the ute] would have rolled over [his leg] but not stopped on top.
"The front wheel was bang on top and ... it's going to rock backwards and forwards, because it's hit the post."
The man was flown to Waikato Hospital with a severe leg injury.
