Authorities in Mississippi say a man was killed while saving his three-year-old daughter who had managed to climb onto a tractor and turn it on.
Pearl River County Coroner Derek Turnage tells WLOX-TV that 24-year-old Bradley Christensen was crushed by the tractor last Saturday in Lumberton.
In the wake of his death, family members are calling Christensen a hero.
Bradley Christensen has been hailed as a hero. He was crushed by an out-of-control tractor after saving his toddler from disaster. He is pictured with girlfriend, Ashley Gerald, right
He had been talking to his landlord while his kids played outside when the toddler was able to push a button on the tractor and it began to roll toward the landlord’s porch
Authorities say he had been talking to his landlord while his kids played outside when the toddler girl somehow clambered onto a tractor parked nearby and was able to push a button whereupon it began to roll.
Pearl River police chief Shane Tucker said that she had turned the tractor on.
When Christensen noticed the toddler on top of the vehicle, which was rolling towards the landlord’s porch, he raced over to pluck her to safety but at the cost of his own life as he became pinned underneath.
First responders performed attempted to save his life and airlifted Christensen to a hospital, where he died.
Christensen and Ashley Gerald, above, were bringing up five children together as a blended family
‘He ran and grabbed my granddaughter off the tractor, it sucked him underneath. Then it hit the porch. It had him pinned underneath and the wheel kept spinning and crushed him,’ said Louise Gooden, his fiancée’s mother.
His brother, James, said: ‘The way my brother went out, he went out a hero. He gave his life for his daughter.
‘That just shows how much being a father meant to him.’
His fiancée, Ashley Gerald, was sleeping at the time of the incident – the couple were bringing up five children together as a blended family.
She explained that although three were her children, he treated them like they were also his own.
His death comes six months after the family suffered the tragic passing of their three-month-old daughter in December last year, when Mr Christensen performed CPR on the infant for 35 minutes until paramedics arrived.