Man tells of wife's tragic death in river

A man has told of dragging his wife's body from the Northern Wairoa River on Sunday.

John Walker, who has had more than 30 years of commercial fishing experience and seen many tragedies in that time, says there were no lessons to be learned from his wife Lyn's death.

She died in a freak tractor accident only metres away from the couple's home at Aratapu, southwest of Dargaville.

"I was digging some flax out and putting it on the tractor tray and Lyn was doing the dishes and cleaning up the house for the morning while I continued on taking the tractor with the tray laden with flax over to the river's edge, where I was going to tip it, which is about 50m away from the house," he said yesterday.

He wanted to correct earlier reports that said there was a trailer attached to the tractor. Mrs Walker joined him a few minutes later to help tip the flax into the river over a small bank.

The tide was quite a way in at the time and that was when tragedy struck.

"All of a sudden I heard Lyn yell out, 'Look out' and I looked over to where she had been standing and she had completely disappeared."

The tractor appeared to have tipped backwards with the tray loaded with flax.

" ... at that time I could see no sign of her so I jumped off the tractor and straight into the tide desperately looking for her," he said.

Mr Walker said he could not find his wife and then got straight back on to the tractor, started it and lifted the tray up using the hydraulics.

He then put the tractor into low gear and Mrs Walker floated out from under the flax pile.

"I dragged her up on to the bank and administered CPR until the emergency services arrived."

But all attempts to revive Mrs Walker, 56, were unsuccessful.

Mr Walker was unclear about what happened to his wife but thinks she must have slipped.

He said sheer adrenaline was what got him through those tragic moments.

- NZPA