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Inset: Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, Matilde Moncado Ramos Pinto, and their 2 children (KGO). Background: The scene of the collision that left the family dead (KGO).
An 80-year-old woman in California is seeking to have serious charges reduced after being accused of fatally crashing into a family of four at a bus stop. The incident may have been caused by her confusing the gas pedal with the brake.
Mary Fong Lau is facing four felony charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. The victims include 40-year-old Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, 38-year-old Matilde Moncado Ramos Pinto, and their two young children, an infant and a toddler.
During her court appearance on Friday, Lau’s defense attorney plans to request that the court show leniency by allowing her to plead guilty to misdemeanor offenses. This request is detailed in a report from local ABC affiliate KGO.
The tragic event occurred on March 16, 2024, when the family was waiting at a bus stop near the West Portal Muni station, heading to the zoo. Lau, driving a Mercedes SUV at approximately 65 mph, hit and killed all four family members, according to the station’s report.
Shortly after the crash, Lau reportedly told a witness that she had tried to brake but accidentally pressed the gas pedal instead. This information is based on court documents cited by the San Francisco Chronicle in their report.
However, in an interview with police conducted at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Lau reportedly said she was driving food over to her brother’s house when there was a sudden “malfunction with the vehicle which caused the vehicle to suddenly accelerate at a high rate of speed.” She further asserted to authorities that she “tried to brake and put the car into park but was unsuccessful in slowing the vehicle down.”
The victims’ family has been ardently opposed to reduced charges for Lau, with Ramos Pinto’s brother telling KGO that his sister and her family were not the only ones to die that day, saying, “part of us all died.”
“We’re vehemently against them, because no evidence has been provided that would suggest this isn’t gross negligence,” Ramos Pinto told KGO. “I would like to see this person tried and suffer, be held accountable and responsible for her actions.”
Prosecutors with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office have also filed a motion opposing Lau’s request for reduced charges.
The victims’ families have also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lau, which is currently being litigated in civil court. They are represented in the matter by attorney Jim Quadra.
“If the court agrees and drops these charges, she could have acted with gross negligence in taking four lives and have just misdemeanor charges that would look to us and appear to, I think, most people would be looking at this as a basic slap on the wrist for having taken four lives,” Quadra told KGO.
In the wrongful death case, the victims’ family members have accused Lau of concealing her assets to prevent them from being included in any possible settlement or adverse judgment, local Fox affiliate KTVU reported.