Family of 4 waiting for bus to the zoo killed by 80-year-old Mercedes driver who wants misdemeanor charges, lawyers say

An 80-year-old pistillate successful California accused of crashing into and killing a household of 4 arsenic they waited astatine a autobus halt — perchance due to the fact that she mistook the state pedal for the brake — is seeking to person the felony charges against her reduced to misdemeanors.

Mary Fong Lau is presently facing 4 felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence successful the deaths of 40-year-old Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, 38-year-old Matilde Moncado Ramos Pinto, and their 2 young children, an babe and a toddler.

But erstwhile she appears successful tribunal connected Friday, Lau's defence lawyer volition formally inquire the tribunal for leniency and let her to plead blameworthy to misdemeanor crimes, according to a report from section ABC affiliate KGO.

The victims connected March 16, 2024, were waiting astatine a autobus halt adjacent the West Portal Muni presumption connected their mode to the zoo erstwhile Lau, driving her Mercedes SUV astatine astir 65 mph, struck and killed each 4 household members, the presumption reported.

In the contiguous aftermath of the crash, Lau told an eyewitness that she had attempted to deed the brakes connected her vehicle, but "accidentally moved her ft onto the state pedal," the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing tribunal documents.

However, successful an interrogation with constabulary conducted astatine Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Lau reportedly said she was driving nutrient implicit to her brother's location erstwhile determination was a abrupt "malfunction with the conveyance which caused the conveyance to abruptly accelerate astatine a precocious complaint of speed." She further asserted to authorities that she "tried to brake and enactment the car into parkland but was unsuccessful successful slowing the conveyance down."

The victims' household has been ardently opposed to reduced charges for Lau, with Ramos Pinto's member telling KGO that his sister and her household were not the lone ones to dice that day, saying, "part of america each died."

"We're vehemently against them, due to the fact that nary grounds has been provided that would suggest this isn't gross negligence," Ramos Pinto told KGO. "I would similar to spot this idiosyncratic tried and suffer, beryllium held accountable and liable for her actions."

Prosecutors with the San Francisco District Attorney's Office person besides filed a question opposing Lau's petition for reduced charges.

The victims' families person besides filed a wrongful decease suit against Lau, which is presently being litigated successful civilian court. They are represented successful the substance by lawyer Jim Quadra.

"If the tribunal agrees and drops these charges, she could person acted with gross negligence successful taking 4 lives and person conscionable misdemeanor charges that would look to america and look to, I think, astir radical would beryllium looking astatine this arsenic a basal slap connected the wrist for having taken 4 lives," Quadra told KGO.

In the wrongful decease case, the victims' household members person accused Lau of concealing her assets to forestall them from being included successful immoderate imaginable colony oregon adverse judgment, section Fox affiliate KTVU reported.