While helping his father with landscaping work in their backyard, Blake Aartsen, 13, was pinned under the Kanga loader he was operating after it tipped over.

He was dead when paramedics arrived, an ambulance spokeswoman said. Michael Birt, a spokesman for WorkSafe said that while the accident was not under their jurisdiction, it was a timely reminder that “kids and machinery don’t mix”.

“It’s a tragedy to his family, his schoolmates and his friends and it reinforces our consistent call for children and inexperienced people to be kept well away from heavy equipment,” Birt said.