A MUM accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake when she ploughed her car into parents and kids outside a primary school, a court heard today.
Dolly Rincon-Aguilar mowed down a crowd outside the Beatrix Potter Primary School in Earslfield, South London, at pick up time in September 2020 – injuring eleven people.
Pupils and parents were knocked down “like skittles”, letting out a “terror scream”, when the 4×4 mounted the pavement and uprooted a tree, a witness told Kingston Crown Court.
The Toyota Rav4 surged forward and flung a seven-year-old boy into the air, while others as young as six were trapped beneath.
But the 39-year-old mum denies eight counts of dangerous driving and the trial continues.
Although she accepts the incident and injuries occurred, Rincon-Aguilar claims she accidentally pressed the accelerator – an explanation which the police have backed up.
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In the moments after the crash, the court heard how children were scattered bloody and injured at the scene.
Nine people – four children and five adults – were rushed to hospital by emergency services.
The victims suffered “serious” fractures to the face, leg, arm and eye socket.
One eyewitness described the “mayhem and panic” of the collision, claiming the mum’s face appeared “blank and frozen” as she drove forwards.
She said: “There was a very loud metal grinding sound and I immediately felt a sense of danger.
“I saw a car coming straight towards us. There was a sense of mayhem and panic.”
She added: “Dolly’s face looked blank and frozen. I wondered where her children were and saw her youngest son in the passenger seat.”
One of the victims even told jurors they thought they were going to die.
They said: “I felt for a moment that “this is it”. I fell on the floor and a weight was on top of me.
“I remember thinking; “where are the children?” I was lying on the pavement for about an hour before being moved to a wheelchair.
“I didn’t feel pain until I got up and felt extreme pain.”
The court showed jurors body camera footage of Rincon-Aguilar being interviewed by police at the school in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
In the clip, the mum said: “I was just collecting my kids in the car.
“I was just in the corner. I put my foot in the gas and I tried to stop and suddenly the car just went really fast.”
She continued: “I felt panic. I tried to stop and turn…I think I just panic. I heard screaming and I tried to put the handbrake on.”
In another police interview the following day, Rincon-Aguilar added:
“I just remember I was completely numb. I was completely scared. The people that saw when I hit the tree, their faces…I just went numb.
“I was sitting there. I was just in panic. I can’t explain what happened because everything just went too fast.”
Rincon-Aguilar’s defence was supported by forensic collision investigator PC Sean Wakeman.
He said the incident was consistent with the accelerator accidentally being applied, adding “this can only be due to panic or driver inexperience”.
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Rincon-Aguilar passed her driving test on her second attempt in 2019 – the year before the incident.
The trial continues.
