‘All I could hear was Max screaming’: Mum’s torment after Father’s Day tragedy

The mother of a boy killed in a tragic Father’s Day motorbike explosion has spoken of the heartbreaking phone call she received, the moment she realised it wasn’t “a joke” and the torment she suffers a year on.

Max Knight died on Father’s Day 2023. Picture: Supplied

The mother of a boy who was killed in a tragic Father’s Day motorbike explosion has spoken of the heartbreaking phone call she received, saying she can’t stop thinking about that day.

Five-year-old Max Knight was riding his PeeWee50 motorbike at his family’s Murphys Creek property on Father’s Day last year when a jerry can full of petrol ignited while his father was refuelling the bike.

Max Knight suffered burns to 90 per cent of his body.

Max suffered burns to 90 per cent of his body and was flown to the Queensland Children’s Hospital.

His father Harley Knight suffered serious burns to his face, chest and arms.

A year later, his mother Emma Whybird, said she can’t stop thinking about her son and the day it happened.

“The day that it happened, I was at home, I did pamphlet delivering, and I was at home folding pamphlets, and I had a phone call from his dad, and I thought that it was all a joke,” she said.

Max Knight’s mother said he was a sweet, boisterous boy.

Pictures: Supplied

“He was only down there to visit his dad for Father’s Day. And then I realised in his voice, it wasn’t a joke. And that’s when everything just like changed.

“He was supposed to come home to me and all I could hear was Max screaming.”

“And I said to Harley, do you want me to come down? And he said, ‘Oh, no, no, meet me at the hospital’.”

Ms Whybird packed up her things and flew straight to hospital in Brisbane.

“We waited there for someone to come down to take us up to the room, and Harley’s dad came down and escorted us up to the room,” she said.

“And we were in this private room for a while, just waiting for Max to come out of the operation, and the doctor came down and said that there was nothing they could do to help him, because the burns were that severe that it was not survivable

“And when we got to go see him, he was just covered from head to toe, like head to ankle in bandages, and he was on life support, and yeah, I just had to sit there and hold his hand.”

Max’s mum said she can’t stop thinking about the day he died.

Pictures: Supplied

Ms Whybird said she was in shock and didn’t know what to do.

“Max was the light of my life, my other two kids, they’re the light of my life as well,” she said.

“But Max was just a brilliant little kid, and if any time I was upset, he would always come over and give me a hug and tell me it’s going to be okay. He was a sweet little boy.”

“He was very boisterous, He always did these funny things. When he smiled, you’d tell him to smile, he’d put his head on the side with the with his tongue hanging out. It was very cute.”

Ms Whybird said her son was supposed to turn 6 on August 10.

“Some days are very hard and tears have been flowing a lot,” she said.

“I lit a candle in memory of him and sang happy birthday.”