Shropshire Star

Retired Shropshire farmer trapped under tractor used mobile to call for help

A retired Shropshire farmer who was trapped under his tractor managed to call for help by contacting a neighbour on his mobile phone.

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George Butler was pinned to the wheel of his tractor by metal equipment. He was lucky not to lose a leg.

The 77-year-old had the presence of mind to find his phone and ensure he was rescued before too much damage was done.

Mr Butler was working on a vintage tractor he had bought a few months earlier and nobody was aware he was in a barn on a Shropshire farm.

He phoned his neighbour Roger Probert, explained he was trapped and in pain and asked him to call 999.

Mr Butler thanked the emergency services who rescued him and hospital staff for the treatment he had received.

He said: "It was a bit of an ordeal – I'm just thankful I had the phone to hand. I remembered I had it in my pocket and I just called the only number I could remember.

"I must take my hat off to the emergency services. They were very good."

Mr Probert, a retired farmer who lives at Top Farm, just a field away from where the freak accident happened in Leebotwood, near All Stretton, joked: "I told George 'You'll get trapped under that tractor one of these days'.

"I got there straight away. When I saw him, I knew there was no way we could shift it. It had dug into his leg."

Mr Butler had been attaching a grass topper to the vintage Ferguson when the mechanism swung over and pinned him to the tyre just below the knee.

"He's a very lucky bloke. If it had been metal to metal it would have cut his leg off," said Mr Probert.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service used special airbags to lift the machinery to free Mr Butler who was trapped for just over an hour.

"It's a good job he had his mobile with him because nobody knew he was there," said Mr Probert.

Mr Butler, who lives in Cressage, is a regular visitor to Leebotwood, where he keeps two ponies on a property he owns.

He had been restoring the vintage tractor in a barn on the property as a hobby, but the occupiers of the main house were not aware he was there that day.

"If he hadn't got me he'd have been a dead man," said Mr Probert, who has lived in the village since 1981. He described the injured man as "shaken" and added: "It was a relief to see him on the stretcher."

Although the Air Ambulance attended, Mr Butler was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by road ambulance on Sunday night. He left after four hours and is already up and walking round at his home.

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