Toddler killed at train level crossing

* Two-year-old boy goes missing
* Hit and killed by freight train
* Dad finds son's body


A YOUNG family's dream of a new life in the country was shattered by the death of their two-year-old son yesterday.

And it was the boy's father who made the heartbreaking discovery of his son's body after he was hit by a freight train, 200m from their home.

The toddler was playing on railway tracks at the Nantawarra Crossing - about 12km north of Port Wakefield - when he was struck by the train, which was unable to stop in time.

Sgt Jim Tappin said the toddler wandered from the family's nearby home and is understood to have been playing on the tracks with his scooter when he was struck, just after 1pm.

Remnants of the scooter were strewn along the tracks for up to 100m.

It is understood the family - parents believed to be in their late 20s, their four-year-old daughter and the two-year-old son - had moved from Adelaide to Nantawarra late last year.

The parents were at home at the time of the accident with two grandparents and an uncle.

The boy had been playing with his sister and two young relatives when he wandered away.

"The kids were playing and when (the parents) went looking for him for lunch, they couldn't find him . . . and then they were alerted to the fact that the train had stopped," SgtTappin said.

He said the boy's father and uncle were first on the scene.

"The family, obviously, are extremely upset as is everyone else who has been here today," Sgt Tappin said.