Worker seriously injured by electric shock while shutting off machine

A 31-year-old worker was seriously injured by an electric shock while trying to switch off a maize harvester in Schenkenfelden, Upper Austria, ORF reported. He was taken by rescue helicopter to Ordensklinikum Linz Elisabethinen hospital.

The accident happened at about 11.15am on Tuesday, when a 26-year-old man from the Urfahr-Umgebung district was operating the harvester in a field. The machine’s discharge chute touched an overhead medium-voltage power line.

The driver did not initially notice the contact. He stopped the machine after seeing smoke on its right side and began trying to extinguish a smouldering fire.

A 31-year-old colleague from the same district approached in a tractor with a trailer. He apparently wanted to switch off the harvester’s engine. As he attempted to climb onto the machine, he suffered an electric shock and fell to the ground.

An emergency doctor treated him at the scene before he was flown to hospital. The 26-year-old driver was also taken to hospital for examination.