A TAXI driver has died after he was struck by his own car while trying to help a customer.
Brian Braiden, from Sackville Court in the Peters Hill area of Belfast, died on Monday afternoon following an accident on the city's Antrim Road.
The 50-year-old father-of-four had been a taxi driver for Value Cabs for 20 years.
Last night his family described him as an "absolute gentleman" who "idolised" his wife and children.
Mr Braiden's family said the grandfather had got out of his car to close a customer's gates when the vehicle rolled over him at around 2.15pm in the upper Antrim Road area.
His sister-in-law, Margaret Kell, said Mr Braiden was a "gentleman" for whom "nothing was ever too much bother".
He had been with his wife Carol for 20 years, with the pair marrying three years ago in Cyprus.
"He just loved his children and Carol," Ms Kell said.
"He just idolised them and the love that fella had for his mother. She lived facing them and she is ill and he took her ice cream every night".
Mrs Kell described Mr Braiden and his wife Carol as "soul mates".
"They never went anywhere without each other. She never did anything without him."
They has just started a family WhatsApp group and "every morning he wrote `Good morning my beautiful family'."
Ms Kell added: "He was the sort of person everyone would want in their company. The sort of person you go out for the night with and have a laugh and a carry on.
"He was full of life and really, really happy."
She said Mr Braiden had got out of his taxi on the Antrim Road near Belfast Zoo to close a customer's gates when his car "rolled over him".
"It was so sudden," she said.
"He went out to work and they had been talking to him during the day on the phone. He never spoke to them without saying `I love you'. The best father I have ever seen. It's unbelievable.
"Life is too cruel. We can't get our heads around it".
A family and friends service for Mr Braiden will take place at his home on Wednesday, December 5 followed by a service at Roselawn Crematorium at 3pm.
