(Jaen) A young farm worker of 20 was killed after being trapped by a ‘tree-shaker’ arm on a tractor during olive harvesting. The incident occurred in Espeluy, which is between the city of Jaén and Linares. The man had been working on the rollers within the machine, which had been malfunctioning, when it closed on him, trapping him around the abdomen, and went into vibration mode – the machine is used to literally shake the fruit off the trees.

An ambulance and a Guardia Civil rushed to the farm, after they were alerted by an emergency call to 061. They found the man unconscious with serious injuries. He was rushed to the main hospital in Jaén and his condition was at first described as ‘stable.’  However, he died only a couple of hours later, with only four hours elapsing from the moment of the accident to his death.

This is the third olive-harvesting death in the province of Jaén in the last month and a half. The first occurred on the 31st of October when a tractor overturned, crushing its driver in Villacarillo and then on the 17th of November a farmhand fell into an olive-oil silo in Alcalá la Real.

(News: Espeluy, Jaen, Andalucia)