Appeal for help in car park tragedy (From Penarth Times)

Appeal for help in car park tragedy

VALE police are appealing for witnesses to help explain the freak accident in a supermarket car park which killed a Penarth father-of-three.

Detectives are asking residents throughout the Vale to come forward if they saw the accident which killed local man Kenneth Farr at Asda car park on Tuesday, May 14.

Mr Farr, 37, of Shakespeare Avenue, died after a security barrier at the Grangetown store smashed into his red Montego Estate, hitting him on the head.

Passers-by rushed to help, and found his four-year-old daughter, Jessica, in the back seat.

The electronics company worker was taken to University Hospital of Wales, where he was later pronounced dead.

His wife, Helen, 39, who has two other daughters, Emma, eight, and Hannah, two, is being comforted by her parents and sister.

As the family come to terms with the accident, the police have launched a major investigation.

Detectives are particularly keen to speak to two people who used the car park on that day.

One is a man in a red Ford Escort-sized van, who may have had problems with the barrier, and a woman in her late 50s, driving a silver Mercedes convertible, who was following behind.

Inspector Andy Graham told the Times: "The supermarket is used by many families in Penarth. We are keen to speak to anyone who saw what happened, or saw the gate earlier in the day."

The barrier was at the exit of the store and was swung around at night to stop skateboarders and joyriders using the car park.

Police are working on the theory that a sudden gust of wind caught the barrier and swung it around Mr Farr's car.

* If you can identify the man or woman, please contact Cardiff Eastern Area Traffic via the central switchboard on 029 2022 2111.