INVESTIGATIONS are continuing today after a toddler was crushed to death by a car that plunged over a sea wall and crashed on to a crowded Isle of Wight beach.

Holidaymaker Maximillian Holden Young aged two, was playing with his family when the tragedy happened near Yaverland Sailing and Boat Club, Sandown Bay.

It is the second time in a year that someone has been killed by a car on an Isle of Wight beach.

Last summer Professor Harvey Flower, of Imperial College, London, died when a car crashed through a sea wall just a mile away at Shanklin and fell on him as he read on a beach.

The little boy was hit by a silver BMW that apparently left a car park and shot down between 10ft and 12ft on to the sands below, police said.

A witness said he had heard the driver saying he had "got the wrong gear".

Firefighters freed the youngster from beneath the car but he was later pronounced dead at St Mary's Hospital, Newport. A post-mortem examination is due to be conducted by a Home Office pathologist this week.

The child's 42-year-old father received treatment at St Mary's before being transferred to a London hospital yesterday afternoon. He has a broken pelvis.

Hospital staff said his wife, who witnessed the collision, was at his bedside. She was described as traumatised but uninjured.

The family are from Fulham, south London.

Police said the driver of the BMW, a 44-year-old man from the Isle of Wight, had been taken to hospital suffering from shock.

He was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving but was later released on bail pending further inquiries.

Witnesses said four people had been inside the BMW when it left the council-run car park and dropped down on to the beach.

It is thought the car had been manoeuvring into a parking space when the driver apparently lost control and shot straight over a kerb at 4.35pm on Saturday.

The F-registration BMW 535i had travelled from the Bembridge area.

The beach had been crowded with day-trippers enjoying the sunshine. Police kept the area at the north-east end of Sandown Bay sealed off on Saturday evening while accident investigators searched the crash scene.

Forensic examiners were continuing their search this morning. Police were also due to study the car and photographs of the scene and interview witnesses.

Witness Trevor Chapman, 40, said: "The driver got out and was wandering around saying: 'I got the wrong gear.' I think he was going to reverse out of his parking space but lurched forward instead."

Graham Barnes, 43,the marshal of Yaverland Sailing and Boat Club, which is metres from the beach, was involved in the efforts to pull the silver BMW off the boy and his father.

He said: "They shouted to me to bring the tractor along to pick the car up, but there were enough people on the beach to roll the car up to get the chap out from underneath.

"The father was distraught and he was leaning over his child. There were a couple of off-duty paramedics at hand and they dealt with the little chap until the ambulance arrived."

Mr Barnes, added that the distraught mother was trying to keep her injured husband away from the boy as the paramedics worked.

"She was trying to pull her husband back. He was leaning over his son but myself and his wife were just holding him back so the paramedics could deal with it," he said.

Mr Barnes criticised the Isle of Wight Council, which runs the car park, saying it should have acted following Professor Flower's death last year.

Mr Barnes said: "It's the council's fault. They should have learned the lesson from there - no crash barriers, no railway sleepers along the front - an accident waiting to happen."

An Isle of Wight Council spokeswoman said: "The car park and beach are the responsibility of the council. It has no barrier between the cars and the beach. Obviously, this is a terrible tragedy and we will do everything we can to assist the police."

Yesterday a couple and their two children who witnessed the tragedy returned to the beach to lay flowers. The mother, who did not wish to be named, said her children, a boy and a girl, had had trouble sleeping after what they had seen.

A local resident, who also declined to give her name, said the incident had upset the local community. She said: "There's a family on the beach, a lovely sunny day and who's to say that's going to happen? It's very sad."

Police Sgt Andy Timms said: "We are keen to hear from anyone who can tell us anything about the car prior to or while it was in the car park."

Contact the road death investigation team at Lyndhurst on 0845 045 4545 with information.