Mother who crashed car, killing her 4-year-old son, speaks out for the first time

Wendy-May Connon at her High Court sentencing for manslaughter in 2009. Photo / NZPA

A woman who crashed her vehicle, killing her young son, has spoken out publicly for the first time.

In 2009, Wendy-May Connon was found guilty of the manslaughter of her 4-year-old son, Konrad Truger, after he was thrown about 30m from the car his mother had been driving.

Speeding, she had lost control and crashed in Featherston in January, 2008.

In an interview with Fairfax, Connon revealed she had tried to take her own life after being released from hospital weeks after the crash.

"I remember thinking: 'I'm gonna see you, my boy. I'm gonna see you son. I'm gonna see you,'' she said.

"I pulled the covers up and went to sleep. I woke up 24 hours later and I couldn't believe it.''

Connon - who had been in a coma for five weeks following the accident - told Fairfax she did not remember anything from the crash or the events leading up to it.

The fact her son had not been in a proper car seat and that she had been driving at speeds of up to 140km/h, according to authorities, led to her conviction of Konrad's manslaughter.

There was also a question of her being under the influence of cannabis. Despite admitting she had been on her way to visit friends and also purchase a tinny of cannabis when the crash happened, she maintains she would never have taken the drug before driving.

Connon said the worst punishment of all was having to live for the rest of her life knowing she was responsible for her son's death.

"I've got to live with that pain forever...I am responsible for my little boy passing away,'' she told Fairfax.

"Never being able to watch him grow up, never being able to meet his girlfriends, his kids, my grandkids. It's all gone - it went that day that I decided to go out for a visit.''