Shane Yore speaks about being at the scene of the car crash which killed his St Brendan’s College Yeppoon student Rhys

The father of Yeppoon teen Rhys Yore has revealed the absolute devastation of arriving at the scene of the crash that killed his son.

Broken Yeppoon father Shane Yore has spoken of the heart-wrenching moments after he arrived at the scene of a horrific car crash which killed his son Rhys.

Mr Yore followed his wife Mandy in reading a victim impact statement at the sentencing of Owen Andrew Dendle in the Rockhampton District Court on Monday.

Dendle, 18, pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while excessively speeding and was sentenced to four-and-a-half year’s jail suspended after 12 months.

Mr Yore started reading his victim impact statement by saying: “My new life without my son.”

He then said: “Owen Dendle. I’m going to attempt in some way to articulate to you how I feel about my life as I knew it before the 21st of January, 2021, coming to an end.

“On that point, it has been destroyed against my will, through no fault of mine or my family.

“There are no actual words, phrases or examples that I can share that would even come close to explaining how a father feels when his son has been killed in such a horrific way, that was wholly preventable.”

Mr Yore said that he was “broken, broken beyond belief.”

“You see a man up here trying to function, however every day on the inside, I’m nothing.

“My heart and soul have been ripped out, along with all my motivation and drive to go on.

Mitchell, Shane, Mandy and Rhys Yore at Kracker's Bowls Club Krackin' Christmas Party in 2014. Photo Amy Haydock / Morning Bulletin

“Even with a wife and a son, family and friends around me at all times, I feel like the only person on the planet.

“With all the love and support that has come from everyone, I’ve never felt more alone.”

Mr Yore went on to describe the moments after he arrived at the scene of the horrific single-vehicle car crash on January 21.

“In the early hours of Thursday the 21st of January, 2021, I stood on a bridge in Yeppoon trying to find my youngest son Rhys.

“I didn’t know why he wasn’t answering his phone or replying to texts.

“I didn’t know that not more than 30m away from where I was standing at the time, that his broken, little, lifeless body was in the middle of the road.”

Rhys Yore, age 8, in 2013. Junior rugby league players taking part in a clinic at Webb Oval, Yeppoon, with Bulldogs players. Photo Sharyn O'Neill/The Morning Bulletin.

Mr Yore recalled how he didn’t know, that within a matter of minutes, he was going to be told that Rhys was in “this horrific and preventable crash and that he was in fact, now deceased”.

“The longer I stood on the bridge to think about the possibilities that may have occurred there, the more nervous I became.

“At some point soon after, I began to think the worst.

“When I was asked to move away from the scene, I remember not being able to breathe or stop myself from shaking violently, and I began to feel nauseous.

“And in the early hours of Thursday morning, I learned Rhys was dead.

“And I’ve never recovered from the minute I was told.”

Mr Yore said that since the crash, he shuts his eyes at any time of the day or night, and that conversation where the officer broke the news to him “screams like ringing in the ears”.

“And the memory of shaking, screaming, and picking myself up off the road come flooding back.

Mr Yore described when his wife arrived at the scene.

“When Mandy arrived at the scene, anxious and confused, I had to personally tell Mandy that Rhys was gone.

“And the look in Mandy’s eyes that night when I told her our son was dead is often what I see in her eyes now.

“And it’s an experience and vision that is forever etched in my mind, and one as a father and husband should never have to see.

“I know there’s nothing I can do to ease her pain, which makes me feel completely helpless and useless.

“Before that night, there was always something I could do or say to help her.”

Mr Yore also spoke about how he broke the tragic news to his other son.

“Waking my son Mitchell up in the middle of the night to let him know that he had lost his brother, is something else that, as a father, I will never forget.

“This was simply a horrific experience.”

Mr Yore also spoke of “permanent scarring.”

“Of all the things that have permanently scarred me from that night, is the journey back from my house to go and positively identify Rhys as my son.

“And holding in my arms, his lifeless, broken and bleeding little body, is an experience that keeps me up at night, and dictates how my days are going to unfold.

“It’s an experience that has left me with constant memories of death and destruction, rather than a peaceful celebration of Rhys’ life.

“Confirming the identity of my son Rhys, and laying him back down on the table and saying goodbye to him for the last time, is the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.

“I run this scenario over and over again in my mind almost every day, wishing I had more time with him to say the things I never had a chance to say to him that night.

“And things I wanted to say while he was still with us.”