A close shave

Mower blade slices car from boot to bonnet
22 November 2006

A Rotorua woman wants compensation after her car was sliced open from boot to bonnet at waist height by a passing tractor mower. Hera Anderson, 59, was sitting in the driver's seat of her parked Toyota Cinos when the freak accident happened last week.

The Rotorua Daily Post reported that Mrs Anderson was in tears as she recalled the horror of being in the car when it was struck by the mowing blade arm of a Castlecorp tractor. She said she was so shocked she sat, frozen in her car, for 15 minutes afterwards.

Mrs Anderson was sitting in her parked about 3.30pm last Tuesday when the driver's side of her car was swiped by the arm off the side of a tractor.

"I just heard this bang. It felt like someone had hit me in the side of the face," she told the newspaper. "The driver (of the tractor) didn't stop until the car was totally sliced from the back to the bonnet. It was scary."

The arm on the tractor came within centimetres of hitting her.

Mrs Anderson's car has been written off and although she has insurance, she has had to pay $200 for the use of another vehicle. She plans to seek compensation and an apology from Castlecorp. Police will decide soon whether charges will be laid.

Mike Davies, general manager of Castlecorp - the business unit of Rotorua District Council - said the tractor driver had put up the blades, which are encased in a safety cover, before returning to the company's Vaughan Rd base.

He had driven over a bump which caused the arm to which the blade is attached to fall. Mr Davies said the driver was a long-term employee who had been spoken to and would keep his job.

Mrs Anderson said she was lucky she was not killed in the freak accident. Although she escaped unscathed physically, the incident was taking a toll on her emotionally.
Mr Davies said staff members spoke to Mrs Anderson at the scene and asked if there was anything Castlecorp could do for her. The driver of the tractor was just as shaken as Mrs Anderson, he said.

- NZPA

Yoiks! What a scary thing to have happen. I'm glad that Mrs. Anderson is safe. It sounds like the mower manufacturer had better look into more safety features to keep that from happening again.