Tragedy as boy, 2, crushed to death by falling chest of drawers

Tragedy: A file image of Northern Irish police in County Antrim
AFP/Getty Images
Ramzy Alwakeel6 January 2016

A toddler was crushed to death by a chest of drawers in a tragic accident.

Two-year-old Archie Tafts was fatally injured when the piece of furniture fell on him at his home in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Medics battled to save him and he was rushed to hospital, but he died soon afterwards.

Northern Irish police said the boy’s family had “suffered a tremendous loss”.

“Archie’s parents and extended family would like to thank all who have expressed their condolences at this distressing and difficult time,” said a spokesman.

“However, as this is a personal tragedy for them, they will be making no public comment.”

The death is being treated as accidental, police confirmed.

A worker at Archie’s toddler group told the BBC he was “a lovely, smiley wee fellow”.

Recalling a recent Christmas party, Heather Loughridge of the Reformed Presbyterian Church mothers and toddlers group said: “He made a wee reindeer picture that day and one of our other leaders said to his mum to put the date on it so she could remember when he did it.

“That’ll be a wee memory of his last Christmas.”

Local politician John Finlay told the Belfast Telegraph the incident was a “tragedy of unspeakable proportions”.

“The death of any family member in any circumstances is hard for loved ones to bear,” he said, “but to lose a young son in this way is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions, and I cannot begin to imagine the grief and sorrow his parents and the family circle are now having to endure.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in