- Sam Landsberger was talking to his mother when he died
- The AFL reporter was hit and killed by a truck on his way to work
- His father says he was on the phone with his mother Anne when he was hit
Sam Landsberger was speaking to his mother Anne on the phone when he was hit by a truck that killed him.
The footy world is in mourning after Herald Sun reporter Landsberger died on his way to work on Tuesday morning after a traffic collision in Richmond, Melbourne.
Landsberger was just 35 years old.
The truck driver that fatally hit the reporter has since been charged after allegedly refusing to provide a blood sample to police.
The Landsberger family have been inundated with touching tributes from Sam’s colleagues and the wider footy community, with the footy and cricket reporter held in high-esteem by all who knew him.
And his father, Jake, said the family were comforted by the fact that his son’s final moments were spent on the phone to his mother.
‘Anne was on the phone with Sam when it happened, heard the hit, she heard the commotion, and we’ve been beside ourselves worrying whether she actually possibly distracted him,’ Jake told the Herald Sun.
‘Anne was talking to him as he was walking down across the road to go and meet (his friend and former Herald Sun colleague) Nick Smart.
‘The next thing there was commotion, a stranger picked up the phone, and said: ‘Who am I talking to’. Anne said: ‘I’m Sam’s mother, who are you’.
‘And he said, ‘I’m sorry to say but your son has just been hit by a vehicle … he’s lying on the ground’. The man conversed with Sam initially until he lost consciousness.’
The 35-year-old was later taken to The Alfred hospital, where he died. Jake revealed that the stranger messaged the family on WhatsApp on Wednesday.
‘He messaged us and said, ‘I told Sam I was on the phone with his mother and he was at peace knowing that he was communicating with you through me’.’
Reflecting on the outpouring of love for his son, Jake said: ‘I can’t put into words the comfort, the joy and the pride we are getting from that.
‘By the time we both took two sleeping pills to go to bed about 9pm on Tuesday, I personally had received in excess of 250 messages and Anne probably the same.
‘The tributes, watching AFL360, seeing The Tackle had been postponed, the stories all over the media … I said to Anne while we sat at our table bawling our eyes out, I wish I could go back to the morgue in the coroner’s court, just wake Sam up briefly and say, ‘Sam, look how much you were loved, look how much you were admired’.
‘Because he had no idea. He did not realise. I spoke to him so many times about this being his dream job, I kept saying you’ve achieved your dream and he’d keep looking at me and say, ‘Yeah, thanks dad’. He was very self-deprecating.
‘The degree to what we’ve seen has blown us to smithereens.’
More to follow.
