Family devastated after losing their young son
HE JUST SAID I LOST OUR LITTLE BOY, I’M SO SORRY, I TRIED.
BEC PRINGLE
RYAN Pringle was doing what he loved when his short life ended just two days after Christmas.
The seven-year-old from Helidon took every chance he could get to ride shotgun in the truck beside his truck driver father Ben Pringle.
Ryan’s love for trucks is just one of the quirks his parents Ben and Bec Pringle remember about the Year 2 student as they find a way to live without their “perfect” boy.
“He was amazing, he was cheeky and perfect,” Mrs Pringle said.
“We think about him every minute sometimes it’s good and we think about funny things and other times reality smashes you in the face like a tonne of bricks.”
Ryan loved cricket, fishing, football, and finding rocks - his room now sits as a shrine full of his passions, which Mr Pringle cannot yet bear to see.
“He was just a normal kid but different in so many ways; he was like the superstar of kids,” Mr Pringle said.
“He didn’t stop unless he was watching YouTube.”
Mrs Pringle would regularly wake to the sound of footsteps in the hallway and the sound of Ryan’s voice - this would be just another thing she would miss.
“Nothing is ever going to be the same. I don’t know what to feel or do, we walk around aimlessly, nothing feels right, it feels empty, it feels wrong,” she said.
The past three weeks have been a blur for the mother-of-four whose life changed when she picked up the phone on December 27.
“Ben rang me and I couldn’t understand what he was saying, and then I cottoned on to what he said,” Mrs Pringle said.
“He just said I lost our little boy, I’m so sorry, I tried.”
Mr Pringle still couldn’t remember the day in its entirety, but he recalled being pulled back from the burning vehicle when he tried to rescue his son.
Ryan became entrapped in the truck after it collided with another truck, causing it to roll and catch fire on the Gore Highway.
Mr Pringle used his 11 years of truck driving experience to avoid the crash but was unsuccessful.
The truck driven by Mr Pringle hit the rear of another truck while on their way to a feed lot in Wyalla.
The distraught father said he did everything he could to avoid the life-changing accident.
Mr Pringle sustained burns and a broken knee cap in the crash but, even when he recovers, he will never drive a truck again.
Ryan left behind an older brother and sister, as well as his 11-month-old sister Hailee who is the spitting image of him.
Family, friends and the community have rallied around the Pringle family who said they were overwhelmed by the support.