'I have nothing left': Grieving mother slams fine for driver who killed family
A driver who was involved in a horror crash that killed three family members has walked away with just a $1500 fine, leaving the sole survivor devastated.
Waking up with her head stuck on the dashboard, her husband gasping for breath and her two youngest children unresponsive in the back seat.
That is the horrific memory that has made Krystal Reddacliff’s life feel like a nightmare.
But her nightmare is tragically a reality; the family home an eerie, depressing silence without the sounds of her youngest children laughing and playing.
Nearly eighteen months after the crash that killed Phil Harris, Ocean Harris and Warrior Harris at Jimbour East, the LandCruiser driver involved was fined $1500 for driving without due care.
Ms Reddacliff, the family’s sole survivor, spent three days in hospital believing they were alive before learning the news.
“I didn’t know I’d wake up days later and find out I’ve lost everyone,” Ms Reddacliff said.
Two weeks after the crash, she left hospital with a broken back, six broken ribs and a broken arm.
The wrecked car containing her children’s belongings was brought home, a reminder she still looks at.
“I found Ocean’s shoes in there that she had on that day, little Warrior’s iPad he was playing on the way, his little Nintendo and his little Mario bag he put his Nintendo in,” she said.
Ms Reddacliff said she would never see Warrior turn nine or Ocean turn 18, get a licence or marry.
“I’ve thought about moving and then I feel I can’t because I’m leaving them behind,” she said.
“My next thing to look forward to in the future now is just looking forward to death, I’m sorry, I have nothing left.
“You see this stuff on TV, speeding and you flick the channel, you never think this could happen to us.”
Ms Reddacliff said she was also denied the chance to see her loved ones at the morgue.
“They wouldn’t let me go in there and see them because they said I would be too distraught from how they look, so I wasn’t allowed to see my kids, I wasn’t allowed to see hubby,” she said.
“I just wanted to see them, just for my last goodbye.”
The day before the cremation, Ms Reddacliff said Ocean and Warrior’s hands were wrapped in cotton so she and her 25-year-old daughter could hold them through the coffin without seeing the bodies.
“In my head they’re not really gone because I haven’t seen it,” she said.
After Stephen Whyatt was sentenced in Dalby Magistrates Court, Ms Reddacliff said she felt the outcome was unfair.
“You’ve just killed three people and I’m left with nothing,” she said.
“I would have hoped that he would have got some time, I would have hoped.
“I’m really angry, this is unfair and I don’t know what to do about it.”
Ms Reddacliff said she had seen many accidents on the straight road.
“There’s a lot of people doing 140 down along there, it’s one long strip, they put their foot down and away they go,” she said.
“Half the people who drive along it don’t take any notice of the speed zone, I don’t really know what would fix so many accidents on that road.
“Police just need to go along that road more often.”
