Families grieve for mum of 11 and "little jokester”, 4, killed in crash

Walgni Mitchell still has nightmares after watching her brother, four-year-old Jakob French, die in a crash in 2013

Jakob Daniel French, 4, was killed in a one-car crash on the Bruce Highway in 2013. Photo Lucy Smith / Daily Mercury. Picture: Lucy Smith

IT'S been three years since she last saw him, but the memory of young her son still keeps Kathleen French up at night.

Jakob Daniel French, aged four, was a "little jokester" who loved dancing and fishing. He was the mum-of-eight's youngest son.

"He was a really confident little boy and always happy," Ms French said.

"He liked crumping. At first I was like, 'what is this?' but then my eldest son told me it was a style of dancing."

In February 2013, Jakob and his elder sister Walgni Mitchell (nee Smith) were travelling to Maryborough for a family funeral.

They were returning home to Townsville in a van driven by their uncle Shane Anthony Singho.

But about 7am on February 10, north of Prosperpine, the silver Kia Rio drove off the Bruce Highway into Greta Creek.

Kathleen French holding a photo her son Jakob Daniel French, 4, who was killed in a crash on the Bruce Highway. Photo Lucy Smith / Daily Mercury. Picture: Lucy Smith

Mr Singho and Ms Mitchell survived but Jakob and 49-year-old Sandra Clay were killed.

Mr Singho faced trial in the District Court in Mackay this week charged with dangerous driving causing death. A jury unanimously found him not guilty on Thursday afternoon.

Despite the verdict, Mr Singho could be heard apologising to the family of Sandra Clay who were in the public gallery.

Only three weeks before the crash, little Jakob had moved from Hobart to Townsville and was being looked after by his sister.

His sister still has nightmares about the crash.

"She's since got married and had two kids of her own, but she won't travel anywhere without her husband," mum Kathleen French said.

She said she had difficulty sleeping after she learnt of her son's death.

"My eldest son was the one that told me... To get that phone call was just devastating," Ms French said.

She said her children were grieving for their brother with her.

Sandra Clay was killed in a crash at Greta Creek on the Bruce Highway in 2013.Photo Lucy Smith / Daily Mercury. Picture: Lucy Smith

"They felt really helpless. There's nothing they can do, nothing we can do," she said.

"We all go on outings and stuff but there's one missing all the time. Family photos, they're not complete. And we can't do anything about it."

Prior to the crash, Sandra Clay (Ms French's cousin) had been travelling to Townsville to help her daughter with child-minding as she was about to start work as an apprentice chef.

Ms Clay, originally from Palm Island, was living in Maryborough at the time.

"I was going to start work on Sunday. I found out (she'd died) on Sunday, as I was getting ready for work," her daughter, Libby Clay, said.

Her mum would be remembered as a skilled Aboriginal artist and loving mother to 11 and grandmother to 38.

"She was more of a sister than a parent to us. Eleven of us, we'd sit there while she was painting, doing Aboriginal artwork and we'd all be laughing and joking," the younger Ms Clay said.

"Her grandkids don't get to see their nanny (now). They used to sit down and she'd teach them how to paint.

"It was always happy, fun times with her. There was never a dull or a sad moment with her."

Ms Clay designed key features of the Palm Island court house and once held an art exhibition in Canberra. Her creative talents were passed down to her daughter, Aboriginal artist Noby Clay.

Libby said she will miss the regular phone calls with her mum.

"We used to think she got Alzheimers, because she'd called all 11 of her kids every day," Ms Clay said with a laugh.

"I'm always at 6pm, my brother in Mount Isa is always at quarter past 6."

Ms Clay would have been 53 today.

"She loved all of her children and tried to provide a good life for us, no matter we are all grown up and have our own families, she would always drop what she was doing to come and help us if we needed her," Ms Clay said.

Originally published as Families grieve for mum of 11 and "little jokester”, 4, killed in crash