She spent the next several hours lying next to her son’s lifeless body in the driveway.
She called Lucas her “little bear,” whose gentle nature melted the hearts of everyone he met.
Lucas’ uncle and godfather Alvin Doyle, who also witnessed the accident, remembered the child as “a little warrior with a big mullet.”
Ms. Marshall admits that she initially blamed her distraught partner, David, for the incident, adding that the tragedy divided the family.
She added that Lucas does not usually go near cars unless he knows to get out of them.
She believes Lucas was getting into the car to go to his father and uncle’s house when the tragedy occurred.
Ms. Marshall still experiences the loss of Lucas on a daily basis.
“Every morning you wake up and try to understand why your smiling, happy boy is not by your side,” she says.
The Queensland Family and Children’s Commission annual report, Child and Adolescent Deaths in Queensland 2021-22, says 17 people have died in “low speed vehicle collisions” in the past five years.