An investigation is under way after a grader driver died near Lumsden yesterday.
The 53-year-old SouthRoads employee was found dead in Ellis Rd, just before noon yesterday.
''Not sure how the person has passed away ... There is a question mark about that,'' Scott O'Donnell, managing director of H W Richardson Group Ltd, which owns South Roads, said.
''We are hearing he has fallen out but we don't know why. We don't know if it is a medical situation, or he simply lost balance ... We simply don't know.''
The Invercargill-based grader driver had been with the company for just over a year, and was a ''pretty well-known chap around town ... a good guy''.
Next of kin, many of whom lived in Australia, were yet to be informed of his death.
Senior Sergeant Dave Scott, of the Southern District Command Centre, said the man's name was expected to be released today.
Police, including the serious crash unit, and members of Work Safe New Zealand, attended the incident, he said.
It is understood the man fell from the cab and then under the still moving grader.
Lumsden chief fire officer Owen Patterson said the man was dead when emergency services arrived.
''It is just one of those real mysteries''.
The death had been referred to the coroner.
