This father launched a Facebook campaign to find the driver responsible for his baby son’s hit and run but when he found out who did it he was left in shock.
When Jamie Ellison returned from dropping his two daughters at school in Gloucestershire in the UK, he was confronted with the unthinkable.
Paramedics, police, his road blocked off.
A toddler was being rushed to hospital after being involved in a hit and run — it was his 15-month-old son.
As police put out an appeal for anyone with information to step forward, a desperate Jamie made his own plea on Facebook as he waited with his partner Joanne in the hospital.
“I beg anyone who was on Hester’s Way Road between 8:30 and 8:40….doing school runs or catching a bus etc to please call the police and help find who did this to my little man x thank you x,” he wrote.
All day police searched, conducted door knocks and made appeals.
The family anxiously awaited test results on 15-month-old Alexander when at 4pm police came to them with some news.
They had established who had run over the toddler leaving him seriously injured by the roadside before driving off after viewing CCTV. The car that hit 15-month old Alexander was driven by Jamie himself.
The young father of four says he never knew that he had run over his own son. He never suspected a thing.
He now says that he will feel guilty “forever” and that “no one is more sorry than I am.”
Writing on the Facebook page of The Gloucestershire Echo Jamie explained how it happened.
“yesterday morning I put my two girls into the car ready for the school…aj is at the window waving….I reverse out of my drive a minute later after seat belting my two daughters. I drop them at school at which time my gf has alerted me that aj has been hit by a vehicle. …naturally I get to the scene with police ambulances etc. Of course im assuming its a hit and run as I had no idea I reversed into my son on the blind side..my two daughters were also unaware he was there. [sic]
A few hours later thanks to some amazing police men/women they found cctv footage which shows that I hit my own son. Could you imagine what I felt like then knowing I nearly killed my own son completely unaware that I was responsible. You really think I hit him on purpose to do a school run only to get in an ambulance with him 10 mins later? Think about that. Then I have to collect my other son and 2 daughters from school and inform them about their brother…..I hope its a chat you never have to go through. I can genuinely understand somw opinions on here. …but thats all they are opinions. Now you have FACTS of a horrible family tradegy. [sic]
The little man is recovering well and young enough to forget this day…..its something that will never be etched from my mind. So please understand this is an accident…I dont want bad things said about me or my family….were decent hard working parents and trying to do our best its a horrible tradegy and no one is more sorry than I am as I look at cuts in bruises on my son….constantly thinking what if…..what if [sic].”
Jamie later updated the followers on the Echo’s FB page saying:
“Thank you guys the little man is doing so well ….sat on my lap eating and chatting away……thank you for mot [sic] being so quick to judge.”
Local parents have offered their support to the young dad saying they can’t imagine how he is feeling.
One: “Children can cover a great distance in a very short time, We have all turned our backs for a split second and children have vanished. Hope he makes a speedy recovery.”
Another: “Poor man, as a dad myself can only imagine how awful he is feeling at the moment. Accidents happen so easily, and as i have two young ones I can easily agree a split second and they can be somewhere else. They’re into doors and windows, it’s exciting to explore!”
Jamie thanked them with a further update. “Thanks everyone for lovely words…right now hes running around and back to himself…we were very lucky today he has just cuts and bruises but an inch or two the other way could’ve been much worse.
“Thanks again.”
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