It was a play date that turned into a deadly nightmare. Within 20 minutes of leaving her six-year-old daughter Olivia at a friend's house, Yana Stevens received the call every parent dreads. She was told Olivia had been critically injured and was being flown to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne for treatment.
Olivia, and six other children, all under 10, were passengers on an all-terrain vehicle when it rolled over at a farm in Rosedale, in Victoria's Gippsland region. The September 2021 crash resulted in Olivia's death. The six others, including the driver Damien Gibson's five children, survived.
Gibson on Monday pleaded guilty in the County Court to culpable driving causing death over the incident. His daughter was Olivia's best friend. The 36-year-old was not required to speak during Monday afternoon's hearing at Morwell, but did submit to the court a written apology addressed to Olivia's family.
Prosecutor Charlotte Duckett said Gibson had ignored multiple warnings in the ATV buggy's instruction manual and numerous others plastered inside the buggy's cabin. Those warnings included '"do not allow reckless driving", "do not exceed seating capacity of four occupants", "fasten seatbelts" and morbidly '"rollovers have caused severe injuries or even death". Ms Duckett said when Ms Steven's left her daughter with Gibson and his wife, she was playing happily in the family's pool.
He never asked Ms Stevens' permission to take Olivia for a ride in the buggy and had made th.