'Simply going to the zoo': 80-year-old driver who killed family of 4 as they waited for the bus while celebrating anniversary avoids prison time

An 80-year-old California pistillate who crashed into a household of 4 waiting astatine a autobus halt connected a travel to the zoo volition not service immoderate jailhouse oregon situation time, a justice determined Friday.

Mary Fong Lau pleaded nary contention to 4 counts of vehicular manslaughter past period 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. On Friday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan sentenced Lau to 2 years probation and suspended her driver's licence for 3 years.

Chan said Lau's age, deficiency of transgression past and look of remorse factored into his decision, reported CW affiliate KRON. But the victims' household was hoping for a harsher punishment, considering the information that Lau was going 70 mph successful a neighborhood.

"Diego and his household were simply going to the zoo connected a Sunday morning, celebrating their anniversary," Oliveira's sister told KRON. "The consequences … for her actions are not a existent lucifer for the size of the tragedy."

Pinto's member wrote a unfortunate interaction statement.

"She was denied the close to proceed being a parent — thing she had looked guardant to each her life," helium reportedly wrote.

As Law&Crime previously reported, 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 70 mph, struck and killed each 4 household members.

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."

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The victims' household has been ardently opposed to reduced charges for Lau, with Ramos Pinto's member told section ABC affiliate 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."

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.

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.

Jerry Lambe contributed to this report