Driver pleads not guilty to manslaughter of Banksia Road Public School students
The woman charged with two counts of manslaughter after two boys died and three children were seriously injured when her car crashed into a classroom at Banksia Road Public School, has pleaded not guilty.
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The woman charged with two counts of manslaughter after two boys died and three children were seriously injured when her car crashed into a classroom at Banksia Road Public School, has pleaded not guilty.
At 9.45am on November 7, 2017, Maha Al-Shennaga, 52, drove her Toyota Kluger through the wooden building at Banksia Road Primary School in Greenacre.
Twenty-four children, aged between seven and 11, and a female teacher were inside the building at the time.
Ms Al-Shennag, now 55, was charged with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death — drive manner dangerous, and negligent driving (occasioning death).
Classmates Andrew Encinas and Jihad Darwiche, both eight years old, were critically injured in the crash.
They were taken to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead where they were later pronounced dead.
Two girls, aged eight and nine, were also taken to the hospital in a stable condition, and one nine-year-old girl was at the hospital in a serious condition.
Paramedics said 17 students and the teacher were assessed at the school.
The two eight-year-old boys went into cardiac arrest following the crash and died a short time later.
A NSW Ambulance spokesman described the incident as “horrific”.
A distraught father described lifting a 4WD off a dying boy — while another injured child screamed for his mother — moments after the vehicle ploughed into the classroom.
“Three of us lifted it and one of the blokes grabbed him out from underneath,” the man, who did not want to be named, said.
He said the badly injured boy was unconscious under the car while his classmate lay a few feet away, speaking to teachers and helpers.
“He was saying ‘I want my mum’. She wouldn’t have got to see him before he died,” the man said.
“He had a big gash in his head.”
The group performed CPR for up to seven minutes before handing over to arriving paramedics.
Witnesses described the terrifying chain of events.
“The driver was in the back seat, I don’t know how she got there, and she was just screaming,” one man said.
“She was screaming ‘help me, help me’.”
One paramedic described the horror accident as a “scene of carnage” with “distressed and overwhelmed children and teachers”.
“They were crying, they were distressed, some were asking for their parents,” NSW Ambulance superintendent Stephanie Radnidge said at the time.
Ms Al-Shennag was charged with nine offences including manslaughter and negligent driving after the crash.
She has pleaded guilty to two counts of causing bodily harm by misconduct and one count of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.
A trial is expected either later this year or early 2020.
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