By Andrea McCallum
A FARMER had a lucky escape after his tractor overturned leaving him trapped inside.
The terrified 54-year-old was left stranded in the snowy field in freezing temperatures for more than hour before local residents rushed to help on Monday afternoon.
Emergency services raced to the farm – in Longyester, East Lothian – at about 3.50pm after he complained of chest pains after being rescued.
Colleen Morrison, who lives on Kidlaw Farm with her partner where the accident took place, was one of the first who reached him.
She said: “We can see the field from our house and when we came back from the school run we saw a tractor on its side.
“My partner went out to see what was going on and at that point we didn’t know there was someone inside the cab.
“When he came back he said the man wanted some water and had chest pains so we thought we had better call an ambulance.
“I went out into the field to talk to him and get some details – I told him help was on the way.
“He was very confused so I kept speaking to him and making sure he would stay with us.”
The mother-of-two, who works at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as a clinical support worker, said her medical instincts just kicked in.
She added: “I put it down to a panic attack but you can never be sure – he was very disorientated and was clutching his chest.
“If he had got any worse I would have had to have dragged him out of there myself but thankfully I didn’t have to.”
Colleen’s partner, Mark, with the help of another neighbour, managed to pull the farmer out after securing the tractor against a larger machine.
Colleen, 33, said: “It was the combined effort of all of them and he was taken down to the bottom of the field so the emergency services could get to him quicker.”
An ambulance crew looked over the man before taking him to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary last night.
And although fire crews were called in to help they were not required.
Bette Morrison, who owns Kidlaw Farm, said her son and daughter-in-law were a great help.
She said: “My neighbour had sent him to feed sheep that had strayed into our field and it toppled over whilst going up a farm track.
“He probably couldn’t see the track because of the snow and didn’t know where he was going.
“He was there by himself so I’m glad my son and daughter-in-law were able to help him.”
