TRIBUTES were paid today to a fun-loving father who died in a tragic scrapyard accident.

The family of Barry Collins said words could not describe the loss of the 24-year-old who was renowned for his bubbly personality and sense of humour.

Mr Collins was killed after getting inside a vehicle which was plucked by a crane and placed on a scrap heap in Southampton. He suffered fatal neck and head injuries.

His partner Lucy Smith said they were unsure what exactly made him go to the yard but believe Mr Collins may have gone to look at an engine inside a van which was about to be destroyed.

He had gone there with his younger brother Joey who watched on in horror as the accident unfolded before his eyes and he ran screaming for help.

It is thought Mr Collins was inside the vehicle looking at the engine underneath the seats when the car was gripped by the pincers and lifted into the air. When staff at the yard realised someone was inside they lifted the vehicle back down but Mr Collins had already suffered the injuries and fell to the ground from the van as it was lowered.

As reported previously by the Daily Echo, police and paramedics raced to the scene at Huntley & Sons in Ashley Crescent, off Portsmouth Road, last Thursday morning. The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was also scrambled but Mr Collins, from Sholing, was pronounced dead at the scene despite desperate attempts to resuscitate him.

Mr Collins' brother Stephen and brother-in-law Swampy were among the first on the scene after taking a call from a friend who was also at the scrapyard.

Swampy said: "We got there in minutes and I just saw Barry laid out on the floor. I froze. I should have gone to him but I couldn't, I was so shocked. The ambulance and police arrived and they were trying to pull me back, to get me away."

A major investigation by both police and the Health and Safety Executive is under way into the cause of the incident.

Today Ms Smith spoke tearfully about how the loss of her partner of four years - and father to her youngest son Alfie, aged two - would leave a gaping hole in their lives.

She said: "I got a call from Barry's brother who said there had been an accident. I went straight up there but as I turned the corner the police were taping everywhere off. I asked what was going on and the policeman came back over to me and said they had tried all they could to save him but Barry had passed away.

"I felt like I was having a bad dream. I just kept saying it couldn't be true. They told me he was in a mess and I couldn't see him. I had been expecting to find him sat in an ambulance with a broken leg maybe, but not dead."

Ms Adams added: "He was brilliant in many ways. He brought my little boy Thomas up from the age of 18 months and thought the world of him. We had a son together, Alfie, whom he loved. He would bathe him every night and would always get up with him in the night. He would take the kids to the fair.

"Barry would get up every morning and go out and do anything to earn a living. He was generous in his own little way, he was bubbly and everyone knew him for his sense of humour. Words cannot describe what a great, lovely man he was."

Aside from his family, Mr Collins's main passion was for banger racing in which he would take part in meets and races around the south. The former Cantell School pupil, who was the second youngest of five brothers and three sisters, also enjoyed watching England play football, particularly when it gave him an excuse to go to the pub with his family and friends, said Ms Adams.

The family said a funeral service would take place at St Edmunds Church on The Avenue in Southampton but a date had not yet been finalised.