In short:
Police allege a woman drove a car containing four children and a man off the road in Far North Queensland.
Police allege a child in the boot was not properly restrained.
What’s next?
She is due to face court on Thursday charged with five counts of attempted murder.
A woman has been charged with five counts of attempted murder after allegedly driving a car off the road with four children and a man inside in Far North Queensland.
Police allege the 32-year-old deliberately steered the vehicle off the Kennedy Highway at Atherton, south-west of Cairns, in the early hours of Wednesday last week.
The car flipped after crashing into a sign.
Police allege four children, aged from three months to 9 years, and a 43-year-old man were passengers in the vehicle, with one of the children in the boot and not properly restrained.
Police said no major injuries were reported and the group left the scene.
They said they were only made aware of the crash after it was reported by motorists hours later.
Assault investigation uncovers alleged crash link, police say
Police were called to a property at Evelyn, about 20 kilometres south of Atherton, the next day after receiving reports a three-month-old baby and a two-year-old girl had suffered injuries.
The children were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
“We’re alleging a two-year-old and a two-month-old baby were assaulted,” Detective Acting Inspector Jason Chatham said.
Inspector Chatham said investigations into the alleged assault uncovered information about the car crash.
“We’re alleging that particular accident was deliberately caused by the woman in an attempt to kill the children and others on that particular occasion,” he said.
“Thankfully there was no significant injuries arising from the incident the next day, but the events are certainly very disturbing.”
The woman has been charged with five counts of attempted murder, assault while armed and disqualified driving.
She remained in custody at a hospital while her case was mentioned in the Cairns Magistrates Court on Thursday.
No application was made for bail and the case was adjourned until August 30.
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