18 Apr 2019

Parents’ worst nightmare: ‘Our happy life has turned into hell’

From Checkpoint, 5:08 pm on 18 April 2019

A year on from a horror car crash which killed their two children, a Hamilton couple is pleading with drivers to take extra care to prevent more deaths on our roads this Easter weekend.

Sia Mosaferi and Mohy Sharifi were driving to Wellington on Good Friday when their car was hit by a truck after it failed to stop in a line of traffic on the Desert Road.

Their 4-year-old son Arteen and his 10-week-old brother Radeen were in the back seat and both died.

Mr Mosaferi and and Mrs Sharifi said their lives had become a living hell since the crash, and they want tougher penalties for reckless drivers to make sure no one else suffers like they have.

Watch the full interview here:

Speaking to Checkpoint from their home in Hamilton, the pair said the decision to travel to Wellington last year had been made at the last minute, to go and visit friends.

They had been through Taupo and were on the Desert Road when Mr Mosaferi noticed a truck had been tail-gating them for sometime.

He said he planned on overtaking the truck in front of him, to get away from the one which followed close behind, but when he had to slow down for a line of traffic the truck ploughed into his car.

Mr Mosaferi was travelling at 14 kmh, while the truck was going 80 kmh.

"Just imagine that big weight with the small weight - what's going to happen."

The truck's driver has pleaded guilty to careless driving and is due to be sentenced next month - but Mrs Sharifi said they had never had an apology from him, or seen him express any remorse.

"He knew he took two lives away from us.

"He absolutely had no contact with us, no remorse, not even a card - not even a letter," she said.

Mrs Sharifi said they had been told the driver would likely be fined or be sentenced to home detention at his sentencing next month.

"I feel that the law is just too soft, the regulations are just too soft."

She wants tougher road safety rules - and penalties for those who don't follow them - including double-demerit points, and removing all large trucks from New Zealand roads during holiday periods.

"I've seen the effect of how people are just so much more careful with what they do on the road - and it's just stopping people going through what we are.

"Our happy life has turned into hell and there's nothing we can do to change that, we will never be those people again - we will never have those smiles that were coming from the heart," she said.