Tributes for two-year-old 'angel' fatally hit by ute in QLD driveway
A grieving mother has paid a tribute to her two-year-old "princess" who died after being struck by a ute in the driveway of a property in Queensland's Lockyer Valley.
Hope Bunston was hit as the vehicle was leaving the driveway at her Blenheim home on Friday afternoon.
Paramedics were called, but there was nothing that could be done to save her and tragically the toddler died at the scene.
The driver, a 51-year-old Blenheim man, is assisting police with their inquiries. It is understood police are not expecting to charge anyone over the heart-breaking incident.
The little girl's family have been too distraught to speak with the media about the tragedy, but her mother Nicole has expressed heartfelt messages on social media.
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Nicole trains and sells horses on her rural property. Hope, an animal lover like her mother, was often photographed riding high on her Nicole's horses.
"I hope your having fun up there Angel and god is letting you ride the big horses not keeping you on Shetlands. I am sure you are getting away with everything," she wrote on Facebook late Sunday morning.
“My baby is in heaven tonight,” Hope’s mother Nicole Bunston wrote on Saturday.
“Why you had to join the angels, I don’t know, but play all night baby, you have no bed time anymore. Pull all the flowers off those beautiful plants up there. I still can’t believe you’re gone.”
Family and friends have also shared tributes to the sweet little girl taken too soon, and messages and prayers in support of the family who they say loved the little girl dearly.
One called Hope "Such a little princess."
"Heaven gained a little angel today," wrote another.
Many shared visions of the tiny horse lover riding ponies in heaven.
"Nicole we all know that Hope will be riding high on all those beautiful rainbow ponies. You are an amazing Mum to her your love was unconditional may she always watch over you. Sending lots of hugs," was one message.
The family's tragedy comes just weeks after another toddler was killed in the driveway of his Ipswich home by a reversing car, driven by the child's father.
In December a seven-month-old boy was fatally struck when his mother reversed into his pram at Woodridge following a funeral.
Alarmingly, each year an average of seven children under the age of 14 are fatally struck in driveways across Australia, Kidsafe data shows.