Albie Speakman, a 3-year-old boy, has been identified as the victim of a tractor accident on a farm in the Tottington neighborhood of Bury.
North West Ambulance Service called Greater Manchester Police shortly before 12.45pm yesterday after a car transporting a badly injured three-year-old kid on Rochdale Old Road signaled for an ambulance to stop.
The kid was tragically declared dead by paramedics before he could be transferred to the hospital when officers arrived.
Albie’s mother Leah described her son as an incredibly loving, affectionate and caring boy who just wanted everyone to be happy.
‘He was so sensitive and wanted everyone to be okay, especially the people that he loved,’ she said.
‘He loved to play – whether it be with his family or friends at nursery – he would always look for little round things wherever he went, stones, polystyrene balls, bouncy balls, beads – I’m not sure why but he just loved anything round, he would just hold onto them.
‘His favourite memories are at Cleethorpes beach, with his bucket and spade and his ball. His happiest days were on that beach, we were so free and didn’t have any cares in the world. It was just me and Albie and nothing else mattered.
‘Whenever I’d ask him what he wanted to do, he’d want to go on holiday to the beach again; that’s how I know he was truly happy there.
‘We all love Albie so much more than we can ever put into words – especially his Nan and his ‘Nanny-Nanny’, as he would always call her.
‘I will miss absolutely everything about Albie, his voice, his smile, the smell of his skin and the feel of his little hands on my face when he would say ‘I love you mummy girl’.
‘I’ll especially miss going on adventures with Albie, anywhere and everywhere we could have fun; nothing will ever fill the whole that he has left in our hearts, we are broken beyond repair.
‘I always call him my little sunshine boy because he has brought so much light into my life and he is my little ray of sunshine, and I don’t want his life to end here, I need to carry on living for him and take him with me wherever I go. We still have so many more memories to make, Albie!
‘I love him so much and I know he will find his way back to me someday, somehow, because we need each other. Until then I will look for him in everything I do and I will celebrate his life.
‘I’m not sure how to carry on this life without you but I will find a way to be strong for you and make you proud.’
Enquiries yesterday quickly established that Albie had suffered his critical injuries following a collision with a tractor on farmland off Bentley Hall Road.
While detectives from Bury CID and the Health and Safety Executive try to determine the details of the incident, the tractor’s driver is supporting police with their inquiries. A scene is still in place at the property.
On Rochdale Old Road, a scene was set up so that preliminary inquiries could be made. The blockade has now been removed.
The boy’s family is receiving help from specialized officers, and Greater Manchester Police ask that their privacy be maintained during this terrible time.
Chief Inspector Ian Partington, of GMP’s Bury district, said: ‘This is a heart-breaking incident that has seen a young boy tragically lose his life and my thoughts go out to his family and loved ones who will be utterly devastated by today’s events.
‘Despite his family flagging down an ambulance while driving him towards hospital quickly as they could, the boy sadly could not be saved after the best efforts of paramedics; I can’t imagine how distressing this was for those involved.
‘We are working to ensure that a full investigation is carried out, and the farmland where we understand this incident to have occurred remains cordoned off to allow our investigators and partners from the HSE to conduct thorough enquiries to establish exactly what has occurred here.’
Strangers on social media have flooded to send well-wishing messages to the boy’s family, describing the collision as ‘tragic’, ‘awful’ and ‘heartbreaking’.
To add to the tragedy, there are reports of a second, unrelated collision on Rochdale Old Road at the time that the boy’s family made paramedics aware of the boy’s condition.
A Greater Manchester Police car was also in collision with another vehicle as officers drove to the scene, as part of the emergency services response.
A number of people in the car were taken to hospital as a precaution, but no police officers were injured, GMP said.
