Perth parents Emma and Ryan Galloway were prepping dinner at an Esperance caravan park — their eldest son Archie was on the playground opposite their campsite, and their youngest son Parker was taking “one last scoot” on his scooter before dinner.
Emma was chatting to the campers parked up next to them, after a day spent exploring the white sands and pristine waters of the local beaches, when they heard some commotion and a woman came running by.
She was yelling that a child had been hit by a four-wheel-drive.
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Her then-two-year-old, Parker, who she had been keeping an eye on, had only just disappeared around a small bend in the road.
“I hope it’s not my kid,” Emma recalled telling the neighbouring camper, in an interview with The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDF) on Friday.
“Then I saw Archie run up and say: ‘It’s Parker’.”
The caravan park was “absolutely packed” at the time, it was January 2023, and as Emma sprinted the 15m to where her son lay behind the back wheel of a Toyota LandCruiser, underneath the A-frame of the caravan it was towing, there was already a crowd gathering.
A woman gave Emma a phone with paramedics already on the line, and beside her son there was a paediatric doctor who just happened to be having a drink with friends at a nearby campsite moments earlier.
The quick thinking of those nearby was not the only thing that helped to save Parker’s life.
“When he fell, I think the scooter was in front of Parker, so I think … the wheels have gone over Parker, a bit of the brunt of the weight from the LandCruiser had been taken by the scooter,” Emma told RFDF.
There was CCTV footage of the moment, which Emma said she would never want to see, but police told her: “How he was able to survive that accident is just a miracle because he was knocked off and driven over twice by one of the heaviest cars you can get.”
“He was on his belly, he was covered with a blanket, he was conscious, but just sort of whimpering and slightly moving his head — he couldn’t speak or anything,” Emma said.
‘Thought he was a speed bump’
Emma never met the driver of the four-wheel-drive, who had driven over to WA from Adelaide.
Onlookers had desperately shouted out for him to stop as they watched the incident unfold. He had been looking for a place to park, and had crossed onto the other side of the slightly sloped road.
Emma said no party was at fault and told police at the time to let him know they did not blame him for the devastating accident.
“He just thought (Parker) was a speed bump,” she said.
Parker was rushed to a local hospital, but a full-body scan confirmed the small-town facility was unequipped to treat his injuries. The Royal Flying Doctor Service was called to fly him to specialists at the Perth Children’s Hospital.
He had broken his arm, and his pelvis in three places, and he had internal bleeding and a lacerated liver.
In the plane — which the Flying Doctor Podcast host speaking to Emma described as an “intensive care unit in the sky” — one nurse had to stabilise Parker, as Emma experienced “a rollercoaster of emotions.”
They remained in hospital for about four weeks as Parker’s broken bones were realigned and set during skeletal traction — a process which took about four weeks — a frustrating time for an active little boy.
Emma describes Parker as “the smiliest, happiest boy you’d ever meet” but said it was weeks before he flashed his signature grin again.
It would be another month before he started walking again, and not long after that he was back on the scooter.
His pelvic fractures may take years to totally heal, but Emma said: “If you met him now, you would never know that this happened to him last year.”
The Galloway family still love to camp, and say caravanning is an experience that allows their children an independence which they love.
But since the accident, Emma said she has become even more aware of speeding in caravan parks.
“The speed limit at caravan parks is a walking pace … and the number of cars that fly through caravan parks is absolutely insane,” she said.
The slow pace of the LandCruiser which hit Parker could have played a role in his survival, and Emma urged motorists to remember to be alert and drive slowly around caravan parks.
As for Parker — he’ll have an unbelievable story to tell for the rest of his life, already replying to anyone who comments on any of his new and unrelated scratches: “I got hit by a car.”