An 11-year-old boy was enjoying a carefree moment at a picnic table, laughing with friends inside the secure grounds of his primary school.
Just minutes later, tragedy struck. Jack Davey was killed when a driver crashed through the Melbourne school’s fence, sped over the table, and crushed him along with three other children.
In court today, Jack’s parents spoke of their “endless grief” over the loss of their son—a pain made worse by the fact that the woman responsible for the crash is facing only a single charge of careless driving.
An 11-year-old boy, gone in an instant… Jack never even saw the car coming—it’s unimaginable,” his father, Michael Davey, told Melbourne Magistrates Court through tears.
How does a car smash through a fence, cross a median strip, and plough into those innocent children?
It feels impossible, unbelievable… and it’s something I think about every second of every day.
The absence of answers to those questions fills me with rage,” Davey said.
At that moment, driver Shaymaa Oun Ghazi Zuhaira broke down, loudly sobbing from the front row of the courtroom.
I’m sorry,” the 41-year-old woman cried out to the grieving father. “Really sorry.
Jack’s mother, Jayde, added: “In the depths of endless grief, I tried to accept that my son was gone.
Tragic Schoolyard Accident Claims Life of 11-Year-Old Boy
One moment he was here, laughing with his friends, and the next he was gone,” she told the court.
These charges don’t come close to reflecting the outcome. It feels like an insult to us—and to Jack. If there’s no charge for killing him, where is his justice?”
Three other children who were sitting or standing at the picnic table with Jack were rushed to hospital with serious injuries, while another child escaped with minor bruises as the car flew over her.
Today, Prosecutor Anthony Albore withdrew a second charge against Zuhaira—failing to have proper control of a motor vehicle—after she pleaded guilty to a single charge of careless driving.
Zuhaira, who held a P2 probationary licence, had just left a meeting with the principal of Auburn South Primary School about her son when the crash happened on October 29, 2024.
Defense Argument and Prosecution Response
Five schoolchildren were taking an afternoon break, seated at a picnic table near the Burgess Street boundary fence, when, around 2:35 p.m., Zuhaira pulled her Toyota SUV out of a parallel parking spot.
The Toyota mounted the curb, drove over the picnic table where the children were seated, and finally came to rest on the steps of the sports building,” prosecutor Anthony Albore told the court.
One of the surviving children recalled, “Everything went dark, then I was under a car,” while another said, “Me and my friends were sitting on a picnic table, and a car came right at us.
Albore said Zuhaira had been on the phone with her husband minutes before the crash and pressed the accelerator to more than 70 percent as she sped through the school grounds. She later told police the steering wheel and accelerator were “stuck” and that she kept saying, “I can’t control the car as she struck the children.
The court heard she may have mistaken the accelerator for the brake when entering the school. Her lawyer, Matthew Senia, argued that the stressful meeting with the school principal about her son triggered past trauma from her life in Iraq, impairing her ability to drive and causing her to press the accelerator by mistake.
Driver Breaks Down, Apologizes to Griev
Her symptoms of trauma were triggered during that meeting, affecting her ability to control the vehicle,” Senia said, while also seeking to suppress her name from media reports due to her mental health concerns—a request that was denied.
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Albore dismissed the trauma argument, saying witnesses reported Zuhaira appeared happy and smiling after leaving the meeting. He urged the court to convict her and impose a community corrections order given the seriousness of the offense.
Zuhaira is unlikely to face jail time but could lose her license. Sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday.
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