An 11-year-old boy was sitting at a picnic table, laughing with his friends, within the safe bounds of his primary school.

Jack’s parents told a court today of their “endless grief” that his life was taken, which had been compounded by the fact the woman who caused the crash faces a single charge of careless driving.

“An 11-year-old boy, dead in an instant … Jack never saw the car, it’s impossible,” his father Michael Davey told Melbourne Magistrates Court, between tears.

“How does your car crash through that fence, over that median strip, into those poor children?

“It is impossible, unbelievable and something I think about every second of the day.

“The lack of answers to those questions enrages me.”

Driver Shaymaa Oun Ghazi Zuhaira interrupted Davey, as she began loudly sobbing in the front row of court.

“I’m sorry,” the 41-year-old woman yelled at the grieving father, “really sorry.”

Jack’s mother, Jayde, said “in the depths and pits of endless grief, I tried to accept my son was gone”.

“One minute he was here, laughing with his friends, and the next he was killed,” she told the court.

“The charges go nowhere near the outcome.

“It is an insult to us, and to Jack, if there is no charge for killing him, where is his justice?”

Three other children who were sitting or standing at the picnic table with Jack were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Another child suffered minor bruising as the car flew over her.

Prosecutor Anthony Albore today withdrew a second charge against Zuhaira, of failing to have proper control of a motor vehicle, as she pleaded guilty to the careless driving charge.

Zuhaira, who had a P2 probationary licence, had just finished a meeting with the principal of Auburn South Primary School about her son when the crash occurred, on October 29, 2024.

“The Toyota mounted and travelled over the picnic table where the children were seated, it came to a rest on steps leading to the sports building,” Albore said.

One of the surviving child victims recalled “everything went dark, then under a car” and another said “me and friends sitting on a picnic table, a car came right at us”.

Zuhaira had been on the phone to her husband minutes before the crash and pressed onto the accelerator at more than 70 per cent as she drove through the school, Albore said.

She told police the wheel and accelerator were “stuck” and she kept saying “I can’t control car” as she hit the kids.

Zuhaira may have mistaken the accelerator for a brake when she drove into the school, the court was told.

Her lawyer Matthew Senia began today’s hearing by unsuccessfully trying to suppress her name from media reports, because of her trauma and mental health issues.

Zuhaira claimed meeting with the principal about her son was stressful and triggered previous trauma from her life in Iraq, Senia said.

“Her symptoms of trauma were triggered in meeting with the school principal, inhibiting her ability to drive the vehicle and leading to the misapprehension of the accelerator,” he said.

Albore rejected this and said witnesses saw Zuhaira was happy and smiling as she left school after the meeting.

He called for her to be convicted and given a community corrections order because of the seriousness of the offending.

Zuhaira will not face jail but may have her licence disqualified.

She will be sentenced on Wednesday.

Support is available by calling Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25).