Man rescued after tractor slides into Sydney harbour

Co-worker went into water and helped operator get to shore

A heavy equipment operator was rescued from Sydney harbour Wednesday after his front-end loader went into the water.

Cape Breton Regional Fire Service platoon chief Paul Ferguson said the incident took place shortly before 11 a.m. near a coal pier at the end of the Sydney Port Access Road.

He said several workers were grading the land when a large tractor with a front-mounted bucket slid in the harbour.

A co-worker went into the water and helped the operator get to the shore, but the two men couldn’t get back up the 20-foot slope.

Ferguson said rescuers used ropes to get the men safely up the bank.

“There was some heavy equipment down there doing some work and one of the machines ended up in the water,” he said. “One of his colleagues seen him go over and he exited his vehicle and went down over the bank and went into the water and assisted him to the shore, but when they got to the shore, the bank was so steep that they couldn’t get up. They were kind of on the bank and in the water, so we assisted them by bringing them up.”

Both men were “pretty cold and wet,” said Ferguson, but neither appeared seriously injured. He said the front-end loader driver was treated at the scene and transported to hospital for further examination, while his colleague didn’t require any treatment.

More than a dozen police, fire and EHS workers were at the scene.

The front-end loader remains completely submerged and it’s expected the Nova Scotia Department of Labour will launch an investigation.