Tractor death the fourth this summer

A MAN from Egypt was yesterday the fourth farmer in just over a month to lose his life after being crushed by the tractor he was driving.
According to Limassol police’s head of rural areas, Philippos Papaelias, the accident took place early yesterday morning, while the 27-year-old victim had been driving along a rural road in Pissouri.
He apparently lost control of the tractor and swerved off the road into a five-metre deep ditch. The tractor was upturned and its driver crushed beneath.
Labour Inspector Andreas Kalogirou said the tractor had no protective canopy; otherwise the outcome could have been a lot different.
“We all know that canopies offer enough protection and in the event that a tractor overturns, it could be the only form of protection,” he explained. “It is sad and worrying that we have had so many work-related deaths recently and it must concern all of us – society, employers and employees, as well as our department – as too many innocent people trying to earn a living for their families are losing their lives,” said Kalogirou.
The Egyptian national was taken to Limassol General Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
The 27-year-old is the latest in a string to farm workers to lose their lives while operating a tractor.
In August alone, three other men lost their lives: George Evangelou, 82, from Paphos, was killed at the end of August after his tractor overturned and crushed him. This tractor also didn’t have a canopy.
A fortnight earlier, a 28-year-old Indian student was killed when trying to repair a tractor in Xylofagou, after it suddenly moved and crushed him.
And at the beginning of August, 74-year-old Yiannakis Ioannou was crushed by his tractor while working on his land plot in Pareklissia, after the tractor rolled forward over Ioannou after he had got off the vehicle. He was found under the wheels of his tractor by his son.

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