Safety-conscious Carterton man found beneath bike in ditch on rough terrain
Family and friends of a Carterton farmer found lifeless beneath his quad bike in an open drain have been left grieving and baffled at his death. Masterton Police Sergeant Chris Megaw said workmates discovered Hamish McLennan under the machine about 4.30pm on Tuesday, hours after the father of two set out in the morning to spray weeds on his Woodlea dairy-farm property.
Mr Megaw said the 57-year-old farmer had “lost control on the bank of an open drain”, toppled in, and was trapped under his machine.
The first people to the scene were unable to revive Mr McLennan and police were working alongside his family and Worksafe New Zealand to reconstruct the events leading up to the incident and establish the cause of the crash.
Family and friends gathered at Woodlea farm on Hodders Rd yesterday and Carterton fire chief Wayne Robinson, a long-time mate, said there was confusion about the circumstances of Mr McLennan’s death.
“You couldn’t get a more safetyconscious person than Hamish. He wouldn’t do anything remotely dangerous to himself or anyone else. That’s why it comes as such a surprise where the bike’s ended up, where he ended up. That’s why the question has to be asked, how did he get there?”
Mr Robinson said his friend had left home about 8am on Tuesday with about 80 litres of chemicals in a sprayer unit aboard the quad. The alarm was raised after he failed to return by mid-afternoon.
“A couple of workers and a neighbour went out looking for him. Emergency services were called when he was found but there was nothing they could do. He had the bike on top of him in two or three feet of water.
“But where he was, everybody said he wouldn’t be there — the terrain, for about a 50m area, was too rough for him to be there — and whether something’s happened, a medical event maybe, will be for the coroner to say.”
Mr McLennan ensured safety was paramount on the property, Mr Robinson said, with workers instructed to wear helmets when riding quad bikes in some areas of the farm.
A funeral service will be held at St Mark’s Anglican Church in Carterton at 1.30pm tomorrow.