Families of fatal crash victims share anger at alleged teen driver

Loved ones of a community leader and nurse killed in a crash allegedly caused by a 13-year-old car thief say their heartbreak is laced with rage as they pay tribute to lives cut cruelly short.

Sheree Robertson, 52, a nurse from Maryborough Hospital, was killed in a horror triple fatality on April 30, 2023.

The 13-year-old boy, whose alleged decision to get behind the wheel of a stolen Mercedes led to a horror triple fatal crash, must now turn “his life around and lead a life worthy of the three he has taken”.

This is the cry of a Maryborough mother whose 17-year-old daughter Kelsie Davies died in the mangled wreck at the city’s entrance on Sunday night alongside her church pastor Michale Chandler, 29 and 52-year-old Hervey Bay nurse Sheree Robertson.

“We are so angry,” Susan Matthews told the Courier Mail

“He (the boy who is charged with dangerous driving causing death) needs to wake up.”

Kelsie, who just last year graduated from Riverside Christian College, was a talented dancer and emerging church and community leader under the guidance of Mrs Chandler, a dedicated wife, mother of two and physiotherapist.

Kelsie Davies was a talented dancer. Pic: Riverside Christian College.

They were both killed instantly while their 23-year-old passenger Kaylah Behrens was critically injured and underwent lifesaving surgery.

The teen allegedly responsible for the crash walked away with a minor foot injury.

“He has destroyed three lives so he needs to make amends,” Ms Matthews said

“Kelsie deserved better.”

The grieving mother’s feelings were echoed by Lisa Latimer, the sister of Ms Robertson, a single mother and hardworking nurse who had just finished a shift at the Maryborough Hospital when her life was cruelly cut short.

Sheree Robertson, 52, a nurse from Maryborough Hospital, was killed in the crash.

“This tragic accident should never have happened,” Ms Latimer said

“She was just coming home from work and her life was taken.

“It seems so pointless...we’re just so devastated.

“Two other families are going through the same thing (and) it’s a tragic way to have their lives ended.”

Describing her sister as “boisterous and straight to the truth”, Ms Latimer said it had just been Ms Robertson and her son Ben, 19, for most of his life.

Sheree Robertson, 52, a nurse from Maryborough Hospital, pictured with her son Ben, was killed in a triple fatality at Maryborough on April 30, 2023, while driving home from work.

She said her brother Glen and his partner Melanie Dealagdon worked at the nearby Hervey Bay Hospital and the family was rallying around Ben and providing him with all the support they could.

“(Sheree) was loud, she had an enormous heart,“ she said

“She loved animals and loved her job – you’d hear her before you’d even seen her.

“If someone had nowhere to go, she would bring them in, feed time and just about give them her last dollar.

“She had the biggest heart.”

Meanwhile, Maryborough’s Labor MP Bruce Saunders, who has been bombarded with calls for change from angry community members, also gave his strongest indication yet that he was at odds with his own government over its handling of the youth crime crisis.

While he would not be drawn on what action he planned to take, Mr Saunders said there would be “very hard questions asked of certain departments and the judiciary”.

Originally published as Families of fatal crash victims share anger at alleged teen driver