Couple crushed to death helping daughter

Jun 2 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

RELATIVES spoke of their shock and sadness yesterday after a Northumberland-born man and his wife were killed in a horrific accident at their daughter’s home in the south of France.

Retired businessman Fred Barrass – who used to live in South Broomhill near Morpeth – and his wife Jeanette died on Saturday when they were crushed by their car as it slid down a steep slope and pinned them against the house.

Former hotelier Mr Barrass, 69, and his 67-year-old wife had lived in Claviers in the picturesque Provence area of the Var for about eight years, after moving to France when they retired.

They were delivering garden furniture in a trailer attached to their car to the home of their daughter Sarah, who lives near them, when the accident happened.

Police said the couple were killed when their parked car’s brakes gave way and it rolled towards the house, carrying the extra weight of the trailer hitched to it.

Sarah managed to dive out of the way but her parents were unable to stop the runaway vehicle, and died as a result of serious injuries sustained when it crushed them against the wall.

Yesterday a police investigation was continuing into the incident, amid fears that the car’s handbrake had failed.

The tragedy has devastated Mr Barrass’s family members in the North East, where his brothers Alex, 74, and Brian, 63, still live in the neighbouring Northumberland villages of Red Row and Hadston respectively. His sister Betty lives in Newcastle.

The former electrician at Broomhill Colliery joined the RAF in the 1960s and met and married his wife while posted in London.

They went on to run a pub in London, then owned a market garden business in Fakenham before taking over a hotel in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, which they ran for many years before retiring and moving to the south of France. They had fallen in love with Provence after helping Sarah renovate an old farm there.

The couple leave another daughter and a son.

Yesterday Mr Barrass’s nephew Ade, 47, a firefighter at RAF Boulmer who lives in Red Row, said: “My Uncle Fred always kept in touch with my dad while he and Jeanette were running their various businesses. He had a lot of business acumen and did very well for himself.

“He and Jeanette were a very nice couple who didn’t have anything bad to say about anyone. Wherever they were, they were well-liked and respected. For them to have died in such tragic circumstances is terrible. Everyone who knew Fred and Jeanette will remember them fondly.”

Alex Barrass said: “I got the news about Fred and Jeanette in a phone call from my brother Brian and it is just very upsetting for everyone. Fred was a very laid-back man who was very well-liked wherever he lived.

“He mixed well with all sorts of people and liked to get back up to the North East while he was living in the UK.”