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ON the same concrete staircase where eight-year-old Gideon Smart was pinned against 24 hours earlier, a black-and-white husky sat motionless on December 30, looking on as the boy's stepfather and two other men constructed a makeshift wall.

One day after the horrific freak accident caused by the runaway truck, Martin Gardener and two neighbours were busy trying to secure their adjoining properties. The air was thick with grief as the family began the grim task of clearing rubble and securing a metal gate to partition the space where the tragedy unfolded.

When Newsday visited the Savannah Drive, Five Rivers home around 9 am, the physical scars of the accident were visible in the twisted metal and broken masonry. Inside the house, Gideon’s mother remained secluded, reportedly too distraught to speak.