Father tells of hit-and-run-horror that left his boy for dead

Distraught dad ... Seng Tann Father / Pic: Adam Ward Source: The Daily Telegraph

via CAAI News Media

By Clementine Cuneo

From: The Daily Telegraph

January 28, 2010

A DISTRAUGHT father told how he could only watch as his son was hit by a utility as he rode his bike and was dragged along the road before the driver fled.

Cambodian man Seng Tann said yesterday he was left crying hysterically in the middle of the street with his 12-year-old son Visal Um bleeding on the ground in front of him.

The driver, believed to be in a car similar to a black Toyota Hilux utility, stopped briefly, then sped away along Pevensey St about 8.30pm on Tuesday.

Mr Tann, riding a bicycle behind his son, said he knelt beside his son's critically injured body and screamed for help.

"I ran to him and I was screaming, 'Not my boy, help me, help me'," Mr Tann said.

"I didn't know what to do. Visal was crying, then not."

The father and son were riding home along Sackville St in Canley Vale after visiting friends.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

Police said a vehicle turned right into Pevensey St and hit Visal as he rode across the road. Visal was dragged for 20m.

"I saw the black car stop for a little bit, then zoom away," Mr Tann said.

He was by his son's hospital bedside last night because he did not want the boy to be alone.

"What if he wakes and I am not there? I don't want him to be on his own and so sick," Mr Tann said.

Sadly, today should be Visal's first day of high school at Cabramatta High. Instead he is in an induced coma in the Children's Hospital Westmead with critical head injuries.

"He was happy to start school, very excited," Mr Tann said. "He wants to study and work hard. But now he is very sick."

Mr Tann said his three sons, aged 16, 14 and Visal, 12, had only moved to Cabramatta about a month ago from Cambodia and their mother was still in Cambodia packing up the family's belongings.

Neurosurgeons were closely monitoring the boy yesterday.

Police appealed for the driver of the vehicle to come forward, or for witnesses to the hit-run to contact police.