Footy mentor dad Aaron Ralph, 33, mourned as he succumbs to injuries from fiery truck crash
A Mid-North Coast community is in mourning following the death of a “one of a kind” dad and local footy legend who succumbed to injuries from a horror truck crash.
A community is in mourning over a “one-of-a-kind” 33-year-old dad and local footy mentor who died following a fiery head-on Mid-North Coast truck crash that also claimed the life of a female driver.
Aaron Ralph died on Thursday in Newcastle’s Hunter Hospital, where he had been rushed in a critical condition following the accident at around 3.30pm last Friday on South West Rocks Road, Jerseyville.
As the tragic news broke Mr Ralph’s sister Shannai Moseley-Ralph posted a simple heart-wrenching photo of herself and the dad-of-one of smiling broadly together.
“I love you always my big brother,” she wrote.
Kempsey Mayor Renne King called the loss “shattering for the whole community”.
“Aaron was one of a kind,” she wrote on social media.
“This is a huge loss for everyone, but my heart goes out to his family.”
Prominent South West Rocks business owner Matt Lovenfosse added to a post by the Macleay Valley Mustangs rugby league club mourning the loss of Mr Ralph.
“Aaron was a good bloke” Mr Lovenfosse wrote.
“We all had fun growing up, and I’ll really miss our chats out the front while he was grabbing his coffee.
“He loved his family and the community. He was so proud of being a dad, and most of our conversations were about our kids.
“He loved his daughter so much and wanted to make the world a better place for her.”
The Mustangs wrote that the club was “grieving the heartbreaking loss of someone who meant so much to all of us”.
“Azza wasn’t just part of our club, he was part of our heartbeat, part of our identity, and proudly known as ‘the voice of the Mustangs’,” their social media post read.
“He was especially proud to see the young men he once mentored through his days with Clontarf stepping up, showing leadership, and doing incredible things in the community.
“His impact stretches far beyond the sidelines it lives on in every one of those young men he believed in.”
“To Azza’s family, we send our deepest love, strength, and condolences. Please know that the entire Mustangs community stands with you, holding you in our hearts and keeping Azza’s legacy alive in every game, every cheer, and every moment we come together.
Azza will always be with us in spirit, and he will never be forgotten.”
Following the accident Ms Moseley-Ralph wrote that Mr Ralph had sustained “fractures throughout the whole body, with the main concern being his head injury”.
The woman involved in the accident died of her injuries in John Hunter on Saturday.
Onlookers rushed in to help free both drivers from their cabins on Friday with fire already beginning to engulf one vehicle.
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Originally published as Footy mentor dad Aaron Ralph, 33, mourned as he succumbs to injuries from fiery truck crash
