Distraught over daughter’s death
The mother of a 12-year-old girl killed in a police chase near Palmerston North is trying to think what she could have done better.
Meadow James and the car’s driver, Ihaia McPhee Maxwell, 15, were killed when the stolen blue Subaru they were fleeing police in hit a power pole on Monday.
Last night, Meadow’s mother, Rachel James, told 1 News it was the second time she’d lost a child – Meadow’s brother, Leif James, died in eerily similar circumstances in Sydney in 2013. He was also a passenger in a stolen blue Subaru being chased by police.
‘‘I left her in the morning,’’ she said of Meadow. ‘‘The last I knew she was at her course. I came home from work. I find out she’s got in this car.’’
Through tears, Rachel James said she was trying to think of what she could have done differently. ‘‘I could have done better. It’s happened. There’s nothing I could do to change it. I don’t blame anyone. I don’t blame the boy who’s driving ... That happened and now I just have to accept it.’’
Ihaia’s grandfather, Dennis Maxwell, said he did not blame police for what happened.
Maxwell said he couldn’t do anything about what happened now. ‘‘As far as I’m concerned, that’s our moko. We love him.’’
Grandmother Kat Maxwell remembered Ihaia as being full of life with a lot of potential.
‘‘It’s just heartbreaking that he went down the road he did go down. We know he’s quite difficult for his parents.
‘‘But he had a pretty supportive wha¯ nau and things just happened and this is the end of the unfortunate events.’’
Meadow’s brother, Leif, was 18 at the time of the Australian crash, working as a labourer and living with his mother and stepdad in Queensland.
In the Australian police chase, which lasted 80 seconds, the stolen Subaru went through a red light, with two police cars in pursuit. The driver of the Subaru lost control on a bend before the car slid into the path of a ute driving towards it.
The car was going about 135kmh in an 80kmh zone. Leif died in hospital of a head injury.
The other passenger in the Palmerston North car crash on Monday, a 15-year-old girl, was in stable condition in Palmerston North Hospital last night.