{"id":178888,"date":"2025-12-11T20:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178888\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:21:09","slug":"punctured-lung-severed-tendon-among-injuries-in-southland-clean-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178888\/","title":{"rendered":"Punctured lung, severed tendon among injuries in Southland clean up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man has fallen 4m, puncturing a lung, smashing his rib cage and suffering serious internal bleeding while attempting to clear fallen tree debris in Southland. <\/p>\n

The injuries were sustained while cleaning-up wind damaged trees after massive storm winds hit the region<\/a> in late October. <\/p>\n

The incident was detailed by WorkSafe as it cautioned against taking on unqualified chainsaw clean-up work on the severe weather damage. <\/p>\n

\"Rural<\/p>\n

Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson described “trees down absolutely everywhere” in Clutha and Southland. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The WorkSafe update also cited a case of a worker who had a chainsaw smash a bone in his foot and cut 90% of the way through a tendon. <\/p>\n

These cases were among clean-up attempts addressing what Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson described as “trees down absolutely everywhere” in Clutha and Southland.<\/p>\n

Agriculture was New Zealand’s deadliest industry in 2024, with 14 workers killed. <\/p>\n

A Tasman man was killed by a falling tree in June, while clearing vegetation resulting from floods.<\/p>\n

WorkSafe inspector Emma Boyd said: “We’re seeing dangerous cutting techniques, bars stuck in wood, and trees that have split. Even experienced farmers are being caught out because this clean-up isn’t a straightforward job”.<\/p>\n

Logging professionals are urging property owners to avoid doing the job alone and wait for help amid an influx of callouts. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“Storm-damaged trees are loaded with hidden forces that can kill or maim in seconds. These aren’t the usual jobs farmers are used to. We know fallen trees are a disruption, but getting injured in the clean-up is far more of a disruption.”<\/p>\n

Her advice? “Calling in a professional is smart farming, not a sign of weakness”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has fallen 4m, puncturing a lung, smashing his rib cage and suffering serious internal bleeding while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,111,43,139,69,15488],"class_list":["post-178888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accident","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-southland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}