Forest, meadows, fields, no noise and only organic food: The large farm in Mühltal is a small paradise. For a family from Germany, it is only eight kilometers away. Mother, father and their two sons came from Burghausen to Überackern (Braunau district) to spend their holidays on the farm.
Almost all of the wishes of the two boys were fulfilled by the 30-year-old farm owner. Unfortunately, Thursday evening also had serious consequences: the farmer took the brothers with him on his farm loader to work in the adjacent field. Shortly before 7 p.m. eleven-year-old Gabriel wanted to take over the steering of the agricultural implement himself.
head was pinched
The young farmer agreed, but Gabriel lost control of the vehicle moments later. A steering error brought the farm loader too close to a one meter high pile of wood chips that was stored in the vicinity of the field. The vehicle’s left tire hit the wood chips, causing the farm loader to tip over.
The farmer and Gabriel’s brother were not injured in the fall, but the eleven-year-old was unlucky: the farm loader fell on the boy, his head was trapped between the meadow and the vehicle.
“When we arrived at the scene of the accident, the boy was already free. We really tried everything, but he was so badly injured that nobody would have been able to do anything,” says Jürgen Bernecker, commander of the volunteer fire brigade in Überackern.
20 firefighters, police officers, paramedics and the crew of the rescue helicopter had to stop the resuscitation attempts: Gabriel died at the scene of the accident. The boy’s severely shocked family had to be cared for by the crisis intervention team.
“Of course, the farm owner is well known in town. That must be an absolute tragedy for him, too,” says Bernecker. There could now also be legal consequences for the 30-year-old: “Necessary manslaughter will be investigated,” says Alois Ebner, spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Ried im Innkreis.
Only at the end of July was a twelve-year-old boy seriously injured in Innerschwand am Mondsee as a passenger on a tractor. A 56-year-old farmer died in the accident. (against)
Source: Nachrichten
