A mother returning from dropping her children at school in South London was left in hysterics after running over and crushing her elderly neighbour, a court has heard.
Elizabeth Avorga, 42, was driving home in June 2022 when Janet Emmett, 71, was crossing the road using a pair of crutches - but the pensioner slipped and fell under Avorga's car where she was crushed, a jury was told.
Neighbours heard screaming before witnessing Emmett's legs and crutches poking out from beneath Avorga's Chevrolet, which had pulled up on a grass verge on Croydon's Kingsdown Avenue, where both women lived.
One neighbour told police the 42-year-old was hysterical, and screamed: "I tried to stop, but she slid and fell. I killed Janet. Oh my God, I've killed my friend!"
Emergency services were called to Kingsdown Avenue (right) where paramedics found Emmett trapped beneath the car's wheel
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Emergency services were called to the scene, where paramedics found the 71-year-old trapped beneath the car's front-left wheel - the car then had to be lifted by firefighters so she could be taken to hospital.
Emmett's cause of death was later found to have been crushing injuries to her head and torso as a result of the crash.
Jurors at the Old Bailey were told that after the incident, Avorga was heard by a police officer saying: "She was a good lady. We all cared for her. Why God, why?
"She was just walking up. She's got crutches... She's got a hip replacement. She was just telling me last week that she was going to have a replacement.
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An Old Bailey jury was told Avorga was heard by a police officer saying: "She was a good lady. We all cared for her. Why God, why?
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"She was walking up there because we don't have a sidewalk. She was just coming up - she was walking up the drive and then she slipped on her crutches and then, my panic, the car just rolled. The car just rolled because I saw her fall. Oh my God."
In Avorga's police interview, she said she had only noticed the pensioner ahead of her car when she was a couple of metres away.
She told interviewers she had veered to the left, but Emmett then lost her balance and fell into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
Charlotte Hole, prosecuting, said: "Had she stopped, or at least passed Ms Emmett so widely there was no possibility the two would come into contact, the collision would have been avoided."
Avorga denies causing Emmett's death by dangerous driving.
The trial, at London's Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, continues.
