North Rockhampton fatal crash victim Kristine Anderson’s family impact revealed in court

The grief and pain of a family who lost their loved one in a tragic crash near Rockhampton has been revealed in confronting victim impact statements.

A crash at the intersection of Yaamba Rd and Yeppoon Rd forced traffic to be diverted through the Parkhurst Industrial estate.

Kristine Anderson’s elderly mother doesn’t think she will ever get over the loss of her daughter - who she relied upon and misses the companionship of - while Kristine’s brother still struggles with the aftermath of her death.

Their grief and pain were expressed in victim impact statements provided to Rockhampton District Court for the sentencing of Lachlan Finlay Carr, who pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing the death of the adored Parkhurst mother.

Carr had sped up to get in front of Ms Anderson’s vehicle before merging, clipping her vehicle and forcing it to collide head-on at high speed with another vehicle.

Tragically, the impact killed Ms Anderson, aged 64.

Carr, 27, had finished a 12-month good driving behaviour period, handed to him for speeding, days before the tragedy, and had been told by medical practitioners six times not to drive due to an epileptic seizure.

Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence said Ms Anderson’s brother Peter McIntyre did not attend the sentencing of Carr because he “didn’t know whether he could emotionally cope with the proceedings”.

She said Ms Anderson’s mother, Margaret, had wanted to attend but wasn’t able to.

“The defendant’s decision on May 28, 2020, took the life of a daughter, a sister and a mother,” Ms Lawrence said.

“They are still suffering with the traumatic impact of that … having to identify her body and for her brother to have to tell her daughters about what had occurred.”

Judge Jeff Clarke said the deceased’s brother spoke, in his victim impact statement, of the difficulty he had in expressing the emotional impact the loss of his sister has caused the family.

“He had the responsibility of breaking the heartbreaking news about the loss of his sister to the deceased’s daughters,” he said.

“He had to perform the identification process and anyone who has gone through that knows what it’s like.

“He had to retrieve personal belongings from her car.

“There was the financial difficulty in arranging a funeral and he speaks of the emotional disruption in the family of continually missing a loved one.”

Judge Clarke said Ms Anderson’s elderly mother had provided a ‘powerful’ victim impact statement,

“Her daughter was her firstborn child,” he said.

“Her own husband passed away when her children were not even in their teens.

“The deceased’s sister took her own life a couple of years before the tragedy.

“The deceased’s mother experiences significant mobility issues and was not only reliant on her daughter but quite simply says that she just continually misses her company and her friendship every day and she doesn’t think that she will get over the loss of her daughter.”

Judge Clarke sentenced Carr to four years prison, suspended after serving 12 months and operational for four years.

He also disqualified Carr absolutely from driving.

Originally published as North Rockhampton fatal crash victim Kristine Anderson’s family impact revealed in court