Heartbroken family remember toddler killed after fertiliser spreader collapsed
The family of a much-loved “happy, go-lucky” young Victorian boy are in mourning after a fertiliser spreader collapsed on him at their dairy farm near Warrnambool.
Darcy Membrey, 2, was with his father in a machinery shed on the property when the implement toppled onto him on Wednesday. Help came but he couldn’t be saved.
“He is just a happy, go-lucky two-year-old that loved being around the farm,” his grandfather Bruce Membrey said hours after the little boy’s death.
“He was at the farm every day of his life. He liked machinery, fixing things. A real little country kid.”
The spreader was being removed from a tractor when the accident occurred, Worksafe Victoria said in a statement on Wednesday.
Darcy’s father ran to his son and yelled for help, Mr Membrey said
The men were among four people who dug the child out from under the spreader before the road and air ambulance arrived but paramedics couldn’t revive him.
Despite earlier police reports, Mr Membrey told AAP no one had been driving a vehicle with the spreader attached when the accident happened.
The family spent Wednesday night together, trying to come to grips with their loss and explaining to Darcy’s cousins aged four to 12 why he wasn’t coming home.
“When you have little kids you only get one chance. We were just saying the other day we’ve gone through life without a tragedy and then it was just a split second,” Mr Membrey said.
“We are a very close family (but) it won’t be easy.”
Sergeant Matthew Laxton said the tragedy appeared “to be a legitimately terrible accident”.
