Farmer impaled

Press, 14 July 1987, Page 8

Farmer impaled

PA Tauranga A Katikati farmer staggered about 450 metres for help after he was impaled by a pipe which pushed through the floor of his car and flung him through the back window. Mr George Knyvett, aged 31, suffered severe stomach injuries but was in a stable condition in Tauranga Hospital’s inten-sive-care unit yesterday. Mr Knyvett was driving across a paddock in Wright’s Road at 7 a.m. on Sunday to meet a topdressing plane when the freak accident happened. It took him 45 minutes to walk uphill to a farm house after the accident. Mrs Pat Davy answered the door about 7.30 a.m. to find Mr Knyvett standing with a hand on his wounded abdomen. “He was marvellous,” she said.“He walked all that way and sat talking about his ordeal. But it happened so fast it took a while to realise what had happened. “He didn’t look like he would faint, and collapse, and he talked all the way to hospital in the car. “He bled quite a bit. The walking across the paddock didn’t help.” The pipe was lying on the ground and bounced up through the floorboards when the car ran over it. It was an old waterpipe that had been discarded on the farm for about 14 years. Mrs Lucia Knyvett said it was fortunate her husband was pushed out of the car because the impact freed him from the pipe.