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A woman who accelerated through a school fence and killed an 11-year-old boy will walk free from court with a $2000 fine and a cancelled driver’s licence.
The grieving parents of Jack Davey, 11, attended the Melbourne Magistrates court on Wednesday morning as the driver was sentenced.
Shaymaa Oun Ghazi Zuhaira, 41, was convicted of the single offence of careless driving, an offence that only warrants a maximum penalty of a $2400 fine.
She had her licence cancelled and was disqualified from driving for two years. Zuhaira earlier pleaded guilty to the careless driving charge over the October 29, 2024 crash at Auburn South Primary School.
The Davey family gave statements to the court about how her lesser charge had compounded their grief.
Zuhaira was pulling out of a parallel park outside the school when she claims to have “lost control” of her SUV, mounting the median strip and driving into the school fence.
She drove over a picnic table where Jack was enjoying an afternoon break with four school friends, killing him and seriously injuring three others.
Zuhaira has been unable to provide an explanation for the offending, but claimed she had been traumatised by a meeting at the school with the principal before the crash.
Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano rejected that this could have impaired her driving as he handed down his sentence.
“This is a tragic case, it’s a sad case, a case where little that I so do today will overcome the effects of what happened,” the magistrate told the court.
He said the only explanation was Zuhaira had pressed down on the accelerator instead of the brake.
Mr Caltabiano said the case highlighted the care required when handling motor vehicles but noted his sentence was “in no way comparable to Jack’s life”.
“It is not in any view considered as the court’s evaluation of that life,” he said.