A CROSSGATES farmer has spoken about the “very painful” day he accidentally crushed his son to death with a forklift truck.

Linzi and Richard Nelson lost three-year-old Stuart last year when he ran around a corner into the path of the reversing vehicle at Cuttle Hill Farm.

The family said the “only saving grace” was that the tot suffered no pain in those fatal moments.

Linzi and Richard decided to share their heart-breaking story after figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published this week revealed that 29 people were killed in agriculture accidents in the last year alone.

The Farm Safety Foundation is claiming the industry is one of the most dangerous in the UK.

The couple spoke about their harrowing experience on the Victoria Derbyshire Show on Monday.

Richard said: “It was a very painful day.

“I was just doing the usual work on the farm. Linzi came home from work and the first thing Stuart did was hand his wellies to his mum and say, ‘I want out’.

“I said, ‘Come on now we’ll go and feed the cows’ and his eyes lit up.

“We were out and I said ‘You go over there and make sure you keep out of the way’.

“When I was operating the forklift I always had my eyes open all around me. When the accident happened, he was just totally in my blind spot.

“There was no blame on it, I just could not see him for love nor money.

“I was like ‘Please God, don’t let that be Stuart lying there’ and when I moved the machine further back he was lying there lifeless.”

Linzi added: “The only saving grace was that he was in no pain. The accident was quick. He didn’t have to suffer. We didn’t have to make any life choices for him.”

She was 21 weeks pregnant with their second child, Hannah, at the time of the incident. The Nelsons faced intense scrutiny from the HSE in the weeks after and a report was sent to the procurator fiscal.

The couple said they felt that the report very much “pointed the blame” on them.

Richard added: “At first, they said how deeply sorry they were but as the investigation went on I was treated like a criminal.

“It then started to affect me mentally, wondering what was going to happen and I didn’t really have much time to grieve for my son.

“That was quite a long period of uncertainly.”

Despite their heartbreak, the Nelsons don’t think banning children from farms is the answer although they agree they have been more cautious with Hannah.

Linzi explained: “You’re more cautious about what you’re doing. You take that extra five minutes to evaluate how you’re going to do something.

“There are a lot of changes to get used to.

“We have to as an industry change the way we think about farms.

“You don’t want to stop children growing up on a farm as it’s the only way you’re going to get future farmers coming in.”