Victim’s mum pleads for driver to be spared jail in school zone crash

The mother of an eight-year-old schoolboy who suffered horrific injuries when he was run over by a reckless teenage driver has pleaded with a judge not to send the offender to prison.

The offender leaves Queensland Children’s Court after sentencing. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NCA NewsWire

The mother of an eight-year-old schoolboy who suffered horrific injuries when he was run over by a reckless teenage driver has pleaded with a judge not to send the offender to prison in an extraordinary act of compassion.

The driver, now 18, was driving in a school zone at 3.10pm when he attempted to drift or do a burnout through a roundabout, losing control and striking an eight-year-old boy and his father who were waiting to cross the road.

The schoolboy was pinned under the lowered car and was drifting in and out of consciousness before he was rushed to hospital with a fractured tibia, fractured neck and injuries to his upper limbs and chest.

The Children’s Court of Queensland on Thursday heard the little boy had been left with a permanent lifelong injury, with one leg now shorter than the other.

The victim’s mother told the court her son had been a bright and vivacious boy who now spent most of his time in his bedroom, unable to do the things he once loved and forced to relive the horror crash every time someone asked about his disfigured leg.

“We just want (the defendant) to be really aware of the impact of that kind of driving, not just on our family but on the wider community,” the victim’s mother said.

“We are aware that people make mistakes.”

Crown Prosecutor Zachary Kaplan said the then-17-year-old defendant had been driving through a school zone at Scarborough on June 14 last year where the eight-year-old boy and his dad were standing with their bikes on a traffic island waiting to cross the road.

“The defendant entered that roundabout and attempted to execute either a burnout or a drift and in doing so he mounted the pedestrian crossing and struck both (the father and son),” Mr Kaplan said.

“(The father) was thrown onto the bonnet of the car and then onto the ground and (his son) was trapped underneath the car.”

The court heard the teenage driver helped free the boy who was then rushed to hospital to undergo emergency surgery for a significantly displaced fracture to his right tibia which amounted to grievous bodily harm.

“He has not been able to return to his daily activities and he will never be able to do that until such time that he finishes growing at some stage in his 20s,” Mr Kaplan said.

“His youth, for all intents and purposes in being an eight-year-old and being able to run around with his friends or play sport, is over and that’s all due to the defendant’s dangerous activity.”

The teen claimed at the scene he had not done anything wrong and simply looked down at his speedometer.

In a further interview with police, he “concocted a story” claiming he had not done anything wrong but that was contradicted by testimony from multiple eyewitnesses.

“It’s beyond comprehension how an individual who had completed their 100 hours and had done their practical driving test and had the presence of mind to own a car and work on that car would execute a move that dangerous in a school zone at school time when there were children around,” Mr Kaplan said.

“It is simply baffling how someone could do something like that and it is simply good luck and fortune that (the boy) and (his dad) did not die that afternoon.”

Defence barrister Kerala Drew said the teen had full time employment in a trade apprenticeship and came from a loving family that was in court to support him.

She said he had expressed shame and remorse for his actions, even sending flowers to the hospital where the boy was treated, and that after learning the victims’ bikes were destroyed in the crash, had transferred $1000 to his lawyer to help them to buy new ones.

Ms Drew said the boy had made a “split second decision” that had significant consequences.

“Your honour, what you have before you is no doubt very serious offending with awful awful consequences for the family,” she said.

“…what your honour has is a young person who made an immature reckless mistake, one that he has taken full responsibility for, one that he feels significant shame and remorse for…”.

The teen’s father told the court his son had made a split second decision that had changed dozens of lives.

“He’s hurting, the family has been hurting, and we feel terrible for what happened,” he said.

“He’s just trying to do the best he can.”

The offender pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to nine months’ detention to be served by way of a three month conditional release order with no conviction recorded.

He was disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay $1000 compensation for the damaged bicycles.