'I thought I was a goner' trapped hopper survivor

A Nelson man who miraculously survived being trapped up to his eyes by rocks in a hopper has spoken out about the dangers of working with such machinery.

Philip Dick, 53, said he never thought he would get out alive when he became trapped in a hopper on Monday at the Pig Valley quarry he owns with his brother.

"The moment it hit me and I realised what had happened, and I couldn't move anything, I just thought I was dead," he told the Nelson Mail.

Mr Dick was saved only after his workmates dug him out with their bare hands.

He hoped his experience would act as a warning to others in industry, and "jolt" them to think twice about taking risks.

"We are in a small industry, and people are aware of the dangers. Don't go into a hopper - that's the message," he said.

Mr Dick explained he had climbed into the bottom of the hopper to clear a blockage when he became trapped.

"I just thought to myself, 'Wouldn't it be a horrible feeling to see the loader bucket?' and I looked up and there it was coming over top of me.

"Thank goodness I looked up. If I hadn't, it would have dumped right on my shoulders and broken my back. I would've been folded up like a staple.

"It happened that quick, I was buried up to my eyes," he said.

"I was running out of breath, rocks were coming in on my chest ... Every one they pulled out, three more would roll down, and they had to throw them out of the top of the bin."

After the men got him breathing a bit better, they got a grinder and cut a hole in the hopper underneath him so the rocks could run out, he said.

There have been a number of deaths and serious injuries caused to workers who have entered hopper-like machinery, including an incident last year when a worker at Richmond's Firth Industries plant died after being trapped in a sand hopper.

- NZPA