Farmer escapes with bruising after bull charge

A farmer had a lucky escape yesterday after a bull rammed him up against a pen, lodging its horn between his legs.

A spokesman for the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter, which attended the scene, said the accident happened at a farm near Pourerere beach, in central Hawkes Bay.

"He ended up with one of the horns between his legs, which [luckily] missed everything, but the neck and shoulder of the beast crunched his back into the rails of the pen he was working in," the spokesman said.

The man, believed to be in his fifties or sixties, suffered serious bruising to his lower back and spine.

"He'd just finished putting an ear-tag on the bull, and they were about to transport them somewhere ... and the bull pretty much ran at him, which is a pretty major thing when you think of the weight of the bull."

The farmer was attended to at the scene by ambulance staff from Waipukurau and paramedics from Hastings, then flown to Hawkes Bay Regional Hospital by rescue helicopter.

"Initially the farmer thought his injuries were a lot more severe because he was pretty badly winded," the spokesman said.

It was unclear why the bull rammed the man.

- NZPA