A SUNNY afternoon spent playing in a park with family took a horrifying turn when unregistered trail bikes tore through and "t-boned" a little girl.
Three-year-old Nevaeh Cooper-Roney was running towards her mother just before 4pm on May 22 after splashing around at the bubblers in Riverside Park at Raymond Terrace.
Two unregistered motorbikes careened "straight through the middle" of the park and one struck the young child.
"It sent her flying about four metres in the air, and she faceplanted onto cement," her mother Indiana Roney told the Newcastle Herald.
Ms Roney said the rider that hit her daughter looked down then pulled back on the throttle and kept going, while the other also rode off.
Little Nevaeh was rushed to hospital with suspected ankle, pelvis and skull fractures, her mother said.
"She also had a concussion, but luckily there were no broken bones," Ms Roney told the Herald.
"She also had grazes pretty much head-to-toe, she has a haematoma on the left side of her forehead and she has a burn on her elbow from where the tyre has frictioned with her skin."
Ms Roney said police and paramedics arrived at the scene but she was too in shock to remember much.
"I started yelling ... it was just like, 'wow, my daughter has just been hit by a motorbike'," she said.
"I wouldn't wish it upon any other person, it was a very traumatising event."
It has left Nevaeh physically battered and mentally scarred.
She flinches when motorbikes go past, suffers nightmares and talks a lot about the time a motorcycle "ran her over", her mother said.
The park was meant to be a safe place for children and families to gather, especially after school on a Wednesday afternoon.
"It's just a bit scary to go back there because you never know what could happen now," Ms Roney said.
"About 15 minutes prior, there were a lot of kids at that park."
Ms Roney has spoken out about the ordeal in the hope that police will track down those responsible, crack down on illegal trail bike use, and that people will think again before riding dangerously.
Police have appealed to the public for help as they continue to search for the riders involved in the incident.
They have released CCTV images of the dirt bikes they claim were the ones ridden through the park.
Ms Roney pleaded with those responsible to hand themselves in.
"Do the right thing," she said.
"Don't hit-and-run, because it almost killed her, she almost lost her life over it."
Ms Roney was in Raymond Terrace visiting family at the time but grew up in the area herself, and said she'd seen unregistered trail bike activity.
Residents have told the Herald of their fears and frustrations at dirt bike riders in suburbs across the Hunter careening through residential areas at speed, often without helmets, and doing dangerous stunts.
"It is very scary and concerning because it was just a matter of time before someone got hurt, or worst of all killed, and unfortunately it had to be my little girl," Ms Roney said.
Anyone with information about the bikes shown in the images, or about the incident at Raymond Terrace on May 22, has been urged to come forward.
Contact Port Stephens Hunter police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
