A Newcastle mum whose 21-month-old daughter was hit by an e-bike at Honeysuckle has pleaded with electric bike riders to take care and slow down around playgrounds.
Alyce Mahon and her husband had taken their daughter Ella to the pirate ship playground at Honeysuckle Park on Sunday morning when the horror unfolded.
"My daughter was playing in the garden and I said 'come on Ella, come across'," Ms Mahon said.
"At no point was she out of our sight. She was just a couple of metres away and this bike just came out of nowhere.
"I didn't see it coming, I didn't hear it coming and it just hit her.
"The bike and the adult man fell on top of her, so her head impacted the concrete. I just screamed."
A member of the public approached the man and told him he was going too fast near a park, Ms Mahon said, adding that the rider was "very remorseful".
Police confirmed they had received a report of a two-year-old being hit by an e-bike at 10.15am on July 28.
Police said on Monday afternoon the rider, a 40-year-old man, was assisting with their inquiries.
"When you're a parent and you go to a park, you think 'ok what are the dangers'," Ms Mahon said. "At that park it was the water. You don't fear walking on a footpath.
"We're from New Lambton, so it's not like we're foreign to the area but I hadn't been to that park in ages and I didn't have that much awareness about these e-bikes."
Ella's parents rushed her to the Heal Urgent Care clinic in Cooks Hill.
"They observed her for five hours," Ms Mahon said. "The doctor said she's very lucky. If it was lower to her eye socket or if it was the back of her head, she could be dead."
The family were eventually able to go home, but Ms Mahon said Ella was still in the danger stage on Monday afternoon, and if she vomited or became lethargic they would need to call 000 straight away.
"The next 48 hours is critical," Ms Mahon said.
"She can't hit her head for 21 days, so she can't go to daycare which will impact us a lot.
"We've just got to be cautious, but she's a two-year-old. She loves running on her feet.
"But she's in good spirits, she's smiling.
"The swelling has gone down a bit but her eye has closed over and it's black and blue."
Paediatrician John Boulton told the Herald just weeks before the incident that e-scooters and e-bikes tearing around popular spots like the Bathers Way and Honeysuckle were "a catastrophe waiting to happen".
Ms Mahon said she barely slept the night after the crash.
"It just breaks my heart," she said. "It could have been a lot worse, I have to keep telling myself that.
"As a parent you think 'what if I did this differently or we could have gone to a different park', but you shouldn't fear that. My daughter should be able to walk and pick a flower and walk back to me."
The parents decided to go public with a Facebook post and speaking to the media in an effort to improve safety with e-bikes.
"What if we didn't say anything and another kid gets hit this weekend and dies or if it was an elderly person?" Ms Mahon said.
"The biggest thing is that there is actually a designated bike track on the other side of those apartments that they should be riding on.
"As a bike rider, you don't want that on your conscience either."
