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Engineer Crushed To Death By Parking Barrier Just Hours After Telling Parents He Was Expecting First Child

By Angelica N. Sumter
Published on: 02:21 PST, Apr 10, 2016

An engineer was tragically killed after he was crushed to death by a parking barrier, reported the Mirror. On February 28, 2015, 22-year-old William Page of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, was seen on a CCTV footage leaving an industrial site where he worked after repairing his vehicle — a Peugeot 106 — at approximately 10:22 a.m.

It was reported that Page left his vehicle behind and was driving a company van. However, in order to leave the industrial site, one must exit through a parking barrier, which Page unlocked just hours before leaving. But the young engineer failed to put a pin in the parking barrier to keep it open.

As a consequence, the parking barrier closed as Page was driving through it at 8mph, and the metal bar went through the van, crushing the engineer to death.

Emergency services were immediately called to the scene, but it was to no avail as he was pronounced dead just hours after telling his parents that his 21-year-old girlfriend, Rachael Cross, was eight weeks pregnant with their first child.

Following Page’s incident, an investigation ensued but it wasn’t until a year later that a jury found the engineer’s death to be an accident.

Michael Goodwin, who is the Health and Safety Executive engineer, said that “The barrier is free to swing open quite freely. You are not going to need much in the way of wind loads or someone knocking it to cause it to move.”

A forensic collision investigator, Pc Nigel Varney, added that “There does not seem to be any deviation or input from the driver, the only thing that stopped the Transit is the barrier striking the bulkhead.”

“This is a well-known and common problem with these installations,” said Nathan Cook, who is solicitor agent for the HSE. He later add that he “just feel[s] sad, he was a lovely lad.”

“One minute he was telling everyone he was having a baby and over the moon – and the next this happened. He loved kids and being a father was everything he wanted. Everyone said he would have been a great dad.”

Just a month after the engineer was crushed to death in a tragic accident at an industrial site, his pregnant girlfriend posted an ultrasound image via Facebook at eight weeks gestation and stated that the “little fighter has a strong heartbeat, even after all this stress.”

“He was absolutely amazing and I just loved him so much,” Cross said of her late boyfriend. “It was a complete dream for him to be a dad, and obviously I’m still going to make that happen.”

“He was just so happy and never put a downer on your day. I keep expecting him to walk through the door and say, ‘what’s everyone moping about for?’ “

According to the Daily Mail, Cross and Page became an item after realizing “their mutual love of cars.” The pair later moved in with Page’s father, but were reportedly saving up for a place of their own.

“He was brilliant with kids and would have been a great dad,” Cross said. “We spoke about becoming a family one day and when he found out I was pregnant he was absolutely over the moon.”

Cross stated that the last thing her boyfriend said to her before he was tragically crushed to death was that “he loved her.” She went on to say that “We hadn’t been trying for a baby, but we had talked about it. We just said if it happens, it happens. When I found out I was pregnant he was delighted and it felt like it was meant to be.”

“On the Saturday morning when the accident happened he’d left me in bed at eight o’clock while he went off to do up his car. His last words to me were ‘love you, bye’ and off he went. That was the last time I saw him.”

[Image via Shutterstock]

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