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Ashton Waters was playing with his cats and helping his mother in the garden of their Matamata home when tragedy struck.
His mother, Tonya Waters, had been cleaning out the fish pond to make a sandpit for the adventurous 17-month-old to play in. But Ashton, who chased one of his cats on to a neighbour's driveway, would never get to play in it.
He was knocked over accidentally on Sunday afternoon by a teenage driver, who was reversing down his driveway and never saw the toddler. Ashton suffered serious injuries. He was flown to Waikato Hospital in the Lion Foundation rescue helicopter.
But the "full-of-life" little boy who preferred to play than take naps died not long after arriving there.
Yesterday, his family gathered at their home on a quiet Matamata street totally devastated at the loss of their "beautiful little boy".
"It's just a terrible, terrible tragedy," said Ashton's paternal grandmother, Shona Waters of Whangamata. "He was a full-on little kid, just so full of life."
Ashton's maternal grandfather, Wootton Red of Huntly, said "no words" could describe how the family were feeling. "All anybody does is just look at each other and nobody can say anything ... It's just an awful tragedy," he said.
"They were very deserving parents and now everything in their lives has changed, in just a split second."
Mrs Waters said the driver, a 17-year-old Matamata builder, paid his respects to the grieving family yesterday. She said there was little he could have done as it would have been too difficult to see the tiny toddler.
"He's only a young kid, he's only moved in there a couple of weeks ago, the poor kid."
A friend of the teenager told the Herald he was "gutted" and had gone to stay with his parents.
"He had no idea anything had happened, not until he heard the boy's mother screaming."
According to a 2007 report from Safe Kids, a child is admitted to hospital with serious injuries after being hit by a vehicle in a driveway every two weeks. Four children, on average, are killed in the same way each year.
The Waikato serious crash unit is investigating. Sergeant Graham McGurk of Matamata said it was too early to say if any charges would be laid.
