A New Zealand woman has faced court over the tragic death of her eight-year-old son, who was killed when her car ploughed into a queue of traffic.
Kim Crous yesterday pleaded guilty to one charge of careless driving causing death and two of careless driving causing injury over the April crash, caused after the 38-year-old took her eyes off the road to check a map on her mobile phone, reports The New Zealand Herald.
Napier District Court heard that James Crous, who was belted into the driver-side rear seat, suffered a broken neck from the impact and died at the scene.
Crous’ daughter was in the backseat alongside her brother, but escaped with non-life threatening injuries.
James was just eight-years-old. Image: Facebook.
The court heard that the impact occurred on Crous' trip to an address Bay View, which she had earlier entered into Google Maps on her mobile phone.
As Crous exited a roundabout, she glanced down at the map, failing to spot the 375m queue of traffic that had banked up on State Highway 2B, reports Stuff.co.nz.
She ploughed into the back of rearmost car, reportedly injuring those inside.
Crous is due to appear in court for sentencing on January 24.
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What a waste of police time. She has had enough trauma without this nonsense.
My mum died in a traffic accident 10 years ago and to this day I hope the car that she pulled out in front of does not know the outcome ( my mum was made nay to blame but he other car must have been speeding fir such high impact) as the self doubt and sadness would be sad.
My heart goes out to this woman, her son that died, her daughter and her family. What a terrible accident. I know someone who had a car accident a week ago without injury or fatalities from checking map on his phone. He failed to see a line of cars that had stopped in front of him too. It can happen to anyone. She will be grieving the loss of her son for the rest of her life. I kinda hope she isn't charged. She and her family suffered enough.So many people check maps wile driving coz often there is no where to pull over. I don't think she was deliberately driving recklessly. Accidents happen to anyone and she needs her family and they need her.
I agree. Just the other day I was driving home from swimming lessons and my kids were arguing on the back seat. I was trying to placate them and almost ran a red light. Thankfully I stopped short but with a skid but it chilled me to my bones and I am still so angry at myself for not paying attention despite the fact that no one was hurt. It is so easy to be distracted but sadly it's just as easy for our (or my) distraction to be fatal.