Karla Epiha was sentenced in Christchurch District Court after earlier pleading guilty to two counts of careless driving causing injury.
Photo: Anna Sargent / RNZ
A woman who ran over a child on a Christchurch pedestrian crossing broke down in court as she was sentenced for careless driving.
The boy was critically injured and it took 10 people to lift Karla Epiha’s car off the 8-year-old on 24 May, 2025.
Judge Mark Callaghan sentenced Epiha to 12 months’ intensive supervision and disqualified her from driving for 10 months.
Epiha earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of careless driving causing injury – one for hitting the boy and the other relating to a woman.
The summary of facts said the 8-year-old boy, a 35-year-old woman and a 5-year-old boy pulling a 3-year-old boy in a trolley were crossing Hereford Street under a green pedestrian light.
Epiha turned onto the street and drove her car into the older boy, the woman and the trolley.
The 8-year-old landed on the car’s bonnet before falling backwards onto the road. The vehicle continued to move forward and stopped on him, leaving him trapped underneath.
“Ten members of the public were required to lift the vehicle,” Judge Callaghan said. “He suffered a fractured pelvis, fractured ribs and a head wound which required a skin graft.”
The woman was hit by the front of the vehicle and fell to the side of the car. She suffered a concussion and a split head.
Epiha claimed she had only seen the 5-year-old boy crossing the road when she turned.
She was visibly emotional during her sentencing in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday, at times dabbing her eyes with tissues.
Judge Callaghan read a victim impact statement from the 35-year-old woman, who said her emotional and physical health had been significantly affected by the crash.
“The concussion has created vertigo, which has now settled; it’s also created regular migraines, which are still happening,” Callaghan said.
“She has ongoing neck pain. Since the crash she has difficulty with flashing lights and the wound on her head has been very slow to heal. She’s lost her ability to pick up things, particularly her child.
“She’s having difficulty remembering things and feels like she has ‘baby brain’ again. She has been diagnosed with moderate depression, she has become more isolated with a developed fear of walking anywhere.”
The woman’s 5-year-old son, who witnessed the crash, now had significant fears about crossing the road and had been hypervigilant with safety, he said.
Judge Callaghan said Epiha was not paying attention when she was driving.
“Your counsel has said that the carelessness is at the low level of the scale. I don’t agree. The carelessness here is at least at a moderate level – it’s not one where you accelerated harshly or at speed, but you just didn’t check,” he said.
“The two pedestrians that you collided with were entitled to be on the crossing, they had the green light and you failed to check, and your lack of attention in my view places it in that moderate category.”
The judge accepted Epiha was genuinely remorseful for the crash.
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