Wednesday afternoon about 4 pm, a backhoe tractor sank into a pond at Estonian National Museum new building construction site.
Backhoe drowns at National Museum site, driver rescued
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According to Tartu Postimees reporter, visiting the site, told that the accident involved a wheel tractor performing earth-moving works, as the driver evidently put too much trust in the ice covering the pond.
After entering the icy surface, the tractor sank into the water with only the top and chimney-type exhaust pipe sticking above the surface. The driver was trapped inside for at least 20 minutes. A rescue worker dressed in diving suit finally dragged the man out in the nick of time, all blue from the cold but still conscious.
«The man is no novice. And we did tell everybody to stay off the ice,» representative of the company responsible for the digging told Õhtuleht. «It was almost 4 pm and filling this pond was meant for the next day. The hoe was needed to break the ice, not the whole tractor. I was myself off for Pärnu already, in my car, when they called me.»
Sounds unbelievable, but nobody noticed the tractor going through the ice, even with many bigger excavators roaring within a few hundred meters. «Nobody took notice, before truck drivers started asking about the backhoe – where is it. By that time, he had been in water at least for 15 minutes.»
A man working on the ENM site said the driver couldn’t get the door open underwater, because of the pressure.
«The whole cabin was filled with water. Only a dozen centimetres of the tractor remained above water. There was some ten centimetres of air under the ceiling, which saved his life. There was nothing we could do but to wait for the rescuers, for by going into the water ourselves, we’d only made the situation worse,» he said.
Rescue worker Mart Rohtmets, dressed in diving suit, went down to save the trapped man. In order to get him out, he had to break the cabin glass.
«He was so weak because of the cold, I had to drag him out. However, he was conscious,» said Mr Rohtmets.
The tractor driver was wearing a heavy coat. According to the rescuer, it’s still good, in icy water, to have something warm on.
The driver was taken to hospital by ambulance for health check. At initial assessment, he was not injured.
The pond is about three meters deep, say the workmen, with ice only 10-15 centimetres thick.
According to the company performing the works, the drowned tractor is a 15-18 tonne Case.
«First, you get the man out. Now, however, we’re quite at a loss about getting the machine out. Somebody will have to dive, fasten the ropes. It’s a big one, won’t come out without a fight,» said the representative.