Horse float hits boy, three

By MEGAN GENRICH PAINFUL screams pierced a quiet Bundamba neighbourhood on Saturday evening after a horse float ran over a three-year-old boy.

Just after 5pm, Queensland Ambulance Service officers were called to an Egerton Street home, where a three-year-old boy had been struck by his family's reversing horse float.

He received head and chest injuries from the accident.

Because of the severity of his condition, the Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ) helicopter was called to airlift him to the Mater Children's Hospital.

Neighbouring residents rushed from their houses just after 5.

30pm as the helicopter circled the Bundamba house, trying to find a safe place to land.

Unable to locate a suitable spot, the helicopter landed on vacant land 1.3 kilometres away at Rush Court.

For 25 minutes, emergency rescue crews and ambulance officers worked to move the boy safely from the vehicle to the helicopter, before flying out at 6pm.

For that hour, onlookers heard the boy's ear-piercing screams, as two adults, believed to be his parents, stroked his hair and whispered reassuringly to him.

An EMQ spokeswoman said the three-year-old suffered head and chest injuries in the accident and was flown to the children's hospital in South Brisbane.

Yesterday a Mater Children's Hospital spokeswoman said the three-year-old was recovering well in the children's ward.