Farmworker rescued after tractor plunges into slurry pit

A farmworker had to be rescued by firefighters after his tractor slipped into a slurry pit.

Emergency crews were called to the farm in Hessay, near York, after receiving a call from the stranded worker using his mobile phone.

When they arrived at the farm they discovered the man trapped in the cab of the tractor, sinking deeper into the slurry lagoon.

See also: 11 farmer tips for safe slurry mixing

Rescue teams used ladders and chains to pull the tractor towards the edge of the pit.

Tractor from earlier incident at the #Hessay Slurry pit. pic.twitter.com/vbtP1riUTm

— North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (@NorthYorksFire) May 19, 2016

The farmworker was urged to crawl to safety. He was not injured.

York station manager Pete Gregory told Minster FM that the farmworker had been agitating slurry when the accident happened.

He said: “It was a very large slurry pit to the rear of the farm and in that pit was a tractor.

“He put a device on the rear of the tractor, like an impeller, to stir the slurry up.

“In the course of doing that, he was reversing the vehicle to the side of the slurry pit and just as he was about to lower the impeller into the pit to stir the slurry, his hydraulics failed.

“The tractor started to roll backwards into the slurry pit to a significant depth. Slurry was actually entering the lower part of the cab.”

Fire crews from York, Tadcaster, Malton, Acomb and a specialist rescue team from Ripon took part in the rescue on Thursday morning (19 May).

#York, #Acomb, #Tadcaster, #Ripon and #Malton crews have rescued a person trapped in a tractor that had fallen into a slurry pit in #Hessay

— North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (@NorthYorksFire) May 19, 2016

They used farm machinery, a 9m ladder, a triple extension ladder, chains, lines and buoyancy vests.