Rathmines toddler run over in driveway: Lake Macquarie parents open up about tragedy

The shattered parents of a toddler who was run over and killed in the family’s driveway have broken their silence on the ‘shocking tragedy’. 

The horror incident unfolded at Lake Macquarie in the NSW Hunter region at about 2.30pm on Monday, when 22-month-old Payton McPherson ran out of his parents’ home in Rathmines and was struck by a car. 

Emergency crews rushed to the scene, but the little girl couldn’t be revived.  

‘It was just a tragic accident, kids being kids and no one is to blame, it’s no one’s fault,’ her mother, Jacintha McPherson, told Nine News. 

She said Payton was a ‘typical two-year-old, full of life, full of beans, full of love, the attitude’.  

Payton McPherson (pictured) was unable to be saved when she was run over on Monday

‘I’ve been on autopilot. I’m just in survival mode and supporting everyone at the moment. When it’s yourself that it happens to, how can you process that. And how are you expected to get over it?,’ she said. 

John Ryan, Payton’s grandfather, said he was saddened some members of the community commented on the accident without knowing the tragic details. 

‘There were people that decided to have their own opinion without knowing the circumstances surrounding what actually happened, making judgments, and they judged,’ he said.

Ms McPherson praised the work of the police, ambulance officers and doctors who attended the scene. 

‘They didn’t know her. They didn’t have to, but they treated her with so much respect and dignity and that’s all a mum can ask for,’ she said.  

NSW Police said inquiries were ongoing. 

Jacintha McPherson (pictured left, with her dad John Ryan) said she doesn’t blame anyone for the tragic death of her daughter Payton

Payton McPherson (pictured) brought great love and joy to her family in her 22 months