Digger bucket leaves worker badly injured

The Department of Labour is investigating how a digger bucket fell on to a man from a height of 2m, leaving him with a serious head injury and causing him to fall and snap his leg.

It is understood that the employee of Auckland company Landscape Structures was on the back of a truck as the digger was being driven off, near the bottom of Okahu St in Okahu Bay about 9.30am yesterday.

The steel bucket fell on him, striking his head and knocking him 1.5m to the ground where his leg snapped.

The man, aged in his 50s, was taken to Auckland City Hospital and last night he was in theatre, listed as stable.

The digger was being unloaded to lay foundations at a building site about 20m up Okahu St, near the intersection with Tamaki Drive.

Dax Hotene, a carpenter working on the property, heard the accident happen.

"I heard a bit of a yell and an 'ooh' so I just stayed up here because I can't handle the blood," he said.

Another worker told Mr Hotene the man's leg was "hanging by the flesh" halfway down his shin and there was blood everywhere.

Mr Hotene said a co-worker of the injured man came up after the accident, saying the pair had spoken about workplace accidents the day before.

"And you can't get much more serious than that."

Mr Hotene said he planned to do his first aid certificate.

Emergency services were at the scene all morning with a section of the road cordoned off.

Police handed the investigation over to the Labour Department and spokesman Eric Janse van Rensburg said more information might be available once inquiries were complete.