A MAN was face-down in the water and not breathing when two workmates reached him after an old railway bridge collapsed under the weight of an excavator.
Two workmates, including the man's twin brother, revived the man after he was struck by a large timber beam that fell when an excavator crashed through an old bridge near Kerang on Monday.
The Bendigo man, 25, jumped into the Pyramid Creek when an excavator being operated by his twin brother overturned when a section of the old former railway bridge collapsed around 2.30pm.
The four-metre long beam was chained to the excavator and was being guided by the man when the bridge collapsed.
The excavator operator, Steven Fitt, scrambled to safety unscathed from the cabin and he and another workmate, Steve Bell, 53, discovered Mr Fitt's twin brother, Tom, lying face-down in the creek.
Mr Bell, a trained first aider, said that Tom Fitt was not breathing when they turned him over, so they commenced resuscitation.
"He was face-down when we got to him, so we lifted his head up and he wasn't breathing," he said.
"We started CPR, mouth-to-mouth, and got him onto the beam in the water, then got him to the bank."
Mr Bell said that Tom Fitt responded to the treatment and started breathing of his own accord. He was also able to converse with his workmates.
Steven Fitt said that he felt the bridge section subsiding under the excavator, and then it momentarily stopped before collapsing.
"It started cracking, I saw Tom jump, then it came down," Mr Fitt said.
The injured man was conscious when an ambulance arrived.
He was conveyed to Kerang District Health in a critical condition, and then transferred by air ambulance to Melbourne with serious head injuries.
He was yesterday in a stable condition in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
He was part of a team of contractors working for VicTrack removing an abandoned bridge from the former Kerang-Koondrook railway line at the end of Hayman Lane on Kerang's northern outskirts.
Sergeant Brett Sampson said that the injured man was working on the edge of the bridge guiding the excavator across.
"He immediately leaped into the river below to avoid being hit by the falling excavator, but while in the water, he was hit in the head by a four-metre beam that had come off the bridge," he said.
"He was instantly knocked unconscious and stopped breathing for around 30 seconds before workmates were able to remove him from the water and perform CPR".
Worksafe and police continue to investigate the cause of the accident, with Worksafe attending the site on Tuesday.
A crane will be needed to remove the excavator from the water in the coming days.
Worksafe spokesman Michael Birt praised Mr Fitt's quick thinking workmates, but said this was another example of how routine jobs can go wrong.
"People have to stop and think; it doesn't matter how experienced you are at your job, you always have to be mindful of your surroundings," he said.
There have been 170 claims within the Gannawarra Shire to Worksafe during the last five years, with an overall cost of $3.37 million.
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