The press was attached to a tractor, whose driver did not initially notice the incident. When he saw shoes sticking out of a hay bale, he discovered the seriously injured man and called the rescue service, according to the police.
A 26-year-old man from Klagenfurt wanted to work with the hay baler on a friend’s farm in Glanegg. He opened the hydraulic discharge flap and checked the inside of the press. He then went to the attached tractor and closed the discharge flap from there. He then drove to a meadow to collect and bale the hay.
According to his own account, he heard a slight jolt in the baler. But as there was no further movement, he drove on. Suddenly he saw that at the other end of the meadow, shoes were sticking out of a hay bale. He spotted the 77-year-old, who lived on his friend’s farm. According to initial investigations, the man on the farmyard probably went from behind into the area of the open baler at the moment the driver went from the baler to the tractor. When the driver closed the hydraulic discharge flap, the man was initially trapped in the baler by the closing discharge flap and was obviously pushed out of the baler on the meadow during the baling process.
He suffered serious injuries and was taken to Klagenfurt Hospital by rescue helicopter.
