A GAMEKEEPER was airlifted to hospital with ‘serious’ chest injuries after being run over by his own 4x4 vehicle.

Jonathan Lord, 35, is believed to have been trying to stop his company Land Rover from rolling down farmland off Halifax Road in Briercliffe, when it crushed him.

The Walshaw and Lancashire Moors worker was flown to Royal Preston Hospital with chest injuries and a suspected broken arm at 10.50am yesterday.

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Watch manager Dominic Fellows, from Burnley Fire Station, said crews from Burnley and Nelson were initially called to the scene on Widdup Moor, close to the Thursden Valley, to reports of a man trapped under a car.

But he said: “He wasn’t trapped. The Land Rover was at the bottom of the hill in a ravine. The man was at the top of the hill with injuries consistent with the car running over him.

“He was treated at the scene and taken to hospital by air ambulance.

“His injuries were substantial but not critical.”

Mr Fellows said although crews were not needed to free the man, firefighters helped paramedics move him from the rural location into the helicopter, which landed on top of the hill.

Luke Barcroft works on his family’s Boulsworth End Farm in Ridehalgh Lane and helped winch the stricken long-wheel based Land Rover out of a valley on his land with a tractor.

He said Mr Lord is employed on the 160,000-acre estate owned by Boundary Mill tycoon Richard Bannister.

His role is to see off vermin and help grouse thrive.

He said: “He was working on the estate when the Land Rover started rolling.

“He tried to stop it and it went over the top of him and rolled down the hill.”

Mr Barcroft said he became aware of the incident, which left the badly damaged four-wheel-drive crumpled at the bottom of family farmland used to rear sheep, when somebody alerted him.

He said: “He told me there was a Land Rover going down the hill really fast.”

With help from neighbouring farmers, the vehicle was eventually pulled up the steep embankment using a heavy-duty cable attached to a tractor and removed from the farm.

Its front end was crushed and its windscreen broken.

Cllr Dave Thomas lives in Red Spar Road in Briercliffe and sits on the parish council.

“I’m really sorry to hear this. I hope he recovers and my thoughts are with his family,” he said.

A police spokeswoman said: “The Land Rover has gone down a hill and the man has tried to stop it and has collided with it.

“The Land Rover lost its grip. It was stationary and it has rolled down the hill.

“The man’s injuries are not thought to be life-threatening but he was taken to hospital by air ambulance.”

A spokeswoman for Walshaw and Lancashire Moors said the estate was aware of the accident.

She added: “We wish Jonathan a speedy recovery.”