Coroner's Finding: Roberts Henry Arthur

87y · Male·Blunt trauma of the head and chest

Henry Arthur Roberts, 87, died from blunt trauma to head and chest after being overrun by his tractor on 16 March 2020. He had multiple serious health conditions including leukaemia, severe vision impairment from macular degeneration, near-total deafness, and previous cognitive impairment. His ophthalmologist had advised in 2014 he was unfit for tractor operation. Despite medical contraindications and his wife's concerns about his risk-taking behaviour, he continued farming. The incident occurred when he alighted from a moving tractor and came to be in its path, resulting in being run over. He managed to remount, steer the tractor to a fence, apply the handbrake, and dismount before collapsing. Contributing factors were his medical conditions, impaired sensory function, cognitive decline, and continued high-risk farm work despite medical advice against it.