Finding out she was cancer-free should have been a day of celebration for NSW mum Kylie Gebert.
Instead, her world came crashing down when she received a call no parent ever wants to receive.
Her son William Ellis had been killed by a car while walking home from school.
The seven-year-old was trying to cross the Sturt Hwy/Market St in Balranald when he was hit in December.
Gebert and her partner, Shaun Ellis, believe their son’s death could have been prevented by pedestrian crossings on the notoriously dangerous stretch of road and are calling for change.
Will was “everyone’s friend”, especially his five sisters — Natalya, Emmy, Porschea, Charley, and Lola — who are lost without him.
“He’s been joined to me since the day he was born, been cuddling me,” Gebert told 7NEWS.com.au.
“He’d tell me he loved me every morning.”
The seven-year-old used to sleep every night with his parents in their bed and they had just helped him adjust to sleeping on his own when his life was taken from them.
“Hearing him say, ‘I love you’ — I just miss it so much,” Gebert said.
“He was just the best,” Ellis added.
“The whole town is shattered.”
During her battle with stage-three breast cancer, Gebert’s children kept her going.
“I would change places with him for anything … to have him back here,” she said.
“He just had so much to live for.
“What he could have been, what he could have done.”
‘We just need to be heard’
After the tragedy, “high pedestrian activity area” signs were erected on both sides of the shopping precinct but Will’s parents said more needs to be done.
The family moved to Balranald, near the NSW-Victorian border, three years ago and said locals have been calling for better safety on the main road for years.
The 110km/h speed limit on the highway drops to 50km/h throughout the town but, with no pedestrian crossings, community members — especially children and the elderly — put their lives at risk each time they cross the road, Gebert said.
Gebert and Ellis want to save other families from experiencing the same pain of losing a loved one.
The couple launched a petition calling for the introduction of pedestrian crossings at the intersections of Market St and Myall St and Market St and We St, and a reduction in speed limit to 40km/h to increase safety for pedestrians.
“(Locals all say) it’s something that should have been done years ago,” Gebert said.
“It’s busy, our main shopping strip.”
A 40km/h speed limit would have increased Will’s chance of survival by 50 per cent, Ellis said.
“We don’t want it to be anyone else,” he said.
“We just need to be heard somehow.”
Transport for NSW told 7NEWS.com.au it was reviewing the speed limit on Market St through the town and said plans were underway to introduce a 40km/h speed limit.
“Transport for NSW is deeply saddened by the death of William Ellis in December 2023,” a spokesperson said.
“Regional director … Alistair Lunn met with William’s parents in Balranald this week and is working closely with them and Balranald Shire Council to improve safety for vulnerable pedestrians crossing the Sturt Hwy, including establishing a high pedestrian activity area.
“We are also looking at other options to improve pedestrian safety for vulnerable pedestrians.”
7NEWS.com.au understands once the speed limit zone review has been formalised, any planned changes will be communicated with the community.
