The mother of a five-year-old schoolgirl who died after being hit by a car says she felt the end of the world coming when she witnessed the incident unfolding.
Joanna Kong died after being hit by a car in her school car park earlier this year.
Photo: Supplied
Joanna (Zhifei) Kong was a student at Pigeon Mountain Primary School in east Auckland, when she was hit in the school car park in March. She died five days later.
Seventy-seven-year-old Cheng Chuang admitted a charge of careless driving causing the death of Joanna.
He was sentenced to 120 hours of community work and disqualified from driving for 12 months, when he appeared for sentencing at the Manukau District Court yesterday before Judge Richard Earwaker.
A man who fatally ran over a five year old outside an Auckland primary school is losing his driver licence for a year
A man who fatally ran over a five year old outside an Auckland primary school is losing his driver licence for a year 27 July 2021
The Bucklands Beach community was rocked by the death of Pigeon Mountain Primary School student, Joanna Kong, in March.
When parking, 77 year old Cheng Chuang had hit the accelerator instead of the brake hitting and dragging the five-year-old under the car.
He s been sentenced to 120 hours community service, ordered to pay 30 thousand dollars in reparation to the Kong family - and cannot drive for 12 months.
The elderly man did not see the young girl as he was pulling into a car park, and when he noticed her and tried to stop he accidentally pushed the accelerator instead of the brake, according to a summary of facts. The car hit Kong once knocking her back “metres through the air”. The car continued to accelerate until it hit a tree, coming to a rest on top of the young girl. Her father Yong Ning Kong tried in vain to lift the car off his daughter.
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Joanna Kong, 5, held on for five days in hospital before she died from her injuries after being hit by a car at school.
The man has interim name suppression. Joanna was rushed to Starship Children’s Hospital in a critical condition following the incident, on the school’s driveway. Her family said in a death notice she would be “greatly missed” by her parents and two sisters. Counties Manukau East police senior sergeant Anson Lin previously said police had forbidden a 77-year-old man from driving following the incident. He said police’s thoughts were with Joanna s family and the wider Pigeon Mountain Primary School community.
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