Illawarra woman ‘deeply sorry’ for tragic buggy crash that killed little girl
A woman has pleaded guilty to negligent driving occasioning death after a buggy she was driving at children’s birthday party flipped and killed a little girl.
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A little girl’s birthday party took a tragic turn one February morning last year, when a buggy being driven by an Illawarra woman lost control, flipped and killed a 10-year-old-girl.
The single mum faced Wollongong Local Court on Friday, where she pleaded guilty to negligent driving occasioning death, more than a year after the freak accident changed her life forever.
She cried in court as details of the tragic day were recounted, the day of her daughter’s birthday party.
The court heard her daughter was having a sleepover for her birthday, and that she agreed to take the children for a ride on a 4x4 Polaris ranger buggy. According to court documents, it was agreed the children would be taken in groups to a nearby creek crossing less than 800 metres from the woman’s Marshall Mount property.
Around 10am on February 17, three girls and the woman loaded into the buggy and set off on their ride.
Documents tendered to the court recounted their trip, with the woman driving down the length of her driveway onto Calderwood Road and toward the creek.
As they drove over a cattle grate she lost control of the buggy, causing the right side of the wheels to leave the roadway.
The woman tried to correct the movement and turned sharply to the left, causing the vehicle to enter a yaw.
The court heard the next few moments were horrific not just for the children, but also their families and the driver.
The accident caused the buggy to flip, throwing the girls and the woman, who were not restrained, from the vehicle.
During the flip, one of the little girl’s sitting next to the driver was crushed by the buggy, with it rolling over her chest and head.
The woman immediately called triple-0, with emergency services arriving shortly after. Paramedics found the little girl had gone into cardiac arrest and injected adrenaline into her body before performing CPR in an effort to restart her heart.
“Her heart rhythm returned and she was given two bags of blood on the side of the road,” court documents read.
The little girl was placed into an induced coma and flown to Sydney Children’s Hospital where she sadly died two days later.
The other two girls in the buggy suffered minor injuries, while the woman was taken from the crash site to hospital, where mandatory blood and urine confirmed she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She suffered grazes to most of her body.
On Friday, her lawyer told the court February 17 2019 marked the day “a happy event turned disastrous”.
“She loved the deceased,” he said. “She loves their family and is so, so deeply sorry to have done what she’s done.”
Her lawyer conceded that while there should not have been four people in the buggy, and that they weren’t wearing seatbelts, his client was not driving erratically or at speed.
Crown prosecutor Michael Fox agreed it was a “tragic accident … maybe one more than most”, saying it was clear Eljamal had sincere remorse and contrition.
“The offender will have to deal with this for the remainder of her life,” he said.
“This is an offence that occurs regularly in society … all too often you hear of quad bike and buggies being involved in fatal crashes.”
He told Magistrate Michael Love he didn’t believe a jail term was necessary in the woman’s case, given the fact it was a freak accident.
Magistrate Love will hand down his sentence in August.