The death of a 21-year-old man who became stuck in a hay baler on a farm at Five Forks yesterday was the fifth on a rural property in the Waitaki district in the past six months.
Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand were called to a property near the intersection of Kakanui Valley Rd, Whitestone Five Forks Rd and Fuchsia Creek Rd, west of Oamaru, about 11am.
A WorkSafe spokeswoman confirmed the man died after becoming stuck in the hay baler and an investigation had been launched.
It was the 17th farm fatality in New Zealand this year and the fifth this month, she said.
Sergeant Blair Wilkinson, of Oamaru, confirmed the Waitaki man was "killed in an accident while working a piece of farm machinery on the property".