The award-winning Herald Sun AFL and cricket reporter was talking on the phone with his mum while walking to meet a friend when he was hit by a truck driven by a 45-year-old Seaford man at the intersection of Bridge Rd and Church St in Richmond, Melbourne on August 20. The 35-year-old later died at The Alfred hospital from his critical injuries. Landsberger’s parents, Jake and Anne, remembered their youngest child and only son as a “caring and wonderful” person who would be deeply missed.
“Approximately 22 years ago our family stood in this same spot in this wonderful big hall celebrating Sam’s bar mitzvah, now we find ourselves in this exact hall in utter and complete devastation,” Dr Landsberger said. “I heard so many stories that parents should never ever have to bury their children, yet this is what we are doing. “He was a dedicated, hardworking journalist who loved his job.
“He brought so much joy to our lives. He lit up every room he entered, yet he lit up our entire lives.” Dr Landsberger said his son’s grade 2 teacher called him a “diamond” and it was the perfect word to describe him.
Dr Landsberger, a former Western Bulldogs doctor, recalled his favourite story about his son when he was 10 years old. “Sam had vomited all over his front, his chest was bright yellow,” he said. “I picked him up over the fence and we walked into the rooms to check him over .
.. (only to learn) the reason he was sick was he’d just consumed a jumbo box of C.