{"id":176015,"date":"2025-12-09T20:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176015\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T20:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:52:11","slug":"girl-dies-after-falling-from-quad-bike-driven-by-father-into-mower-towed-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176015\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl dies after falling from quad bike driven by father into mower towed behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published on \"NZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nEmergency services reached the farm within half an hour but the girl was found to have died at the scene.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ St John\n<\/p>\n

*This article may be distressing for some readers.<\/p>\n

A little girl was sitting on a loose plywood platform on a quad bike when she fell into the path of a mower it was towing and was badly injured.<\/p>\n

Her father, who had been driving the bike, and another relative, rushed to the girl’s aid but she was already in a “dire condition” and died at the scene.<\/p>\n

Coroner Peter Ryan has released his inquest findings after investigating the 7-year-old girl’s death on a farm in Hawke’s Bay in March last year.<\/p>\n

His report comes with a warning to the rural community “of the dangers young children face while accompanying their parents as they carry out their everyday duties on the farm”.<\/p>\n

“The serious crash analyst has rightly pointed out that [the girl’s] death would not have occurred if she had not been riding on the quad bike while her father pulled a mower behind the bike,” Coroner Ryan said.<\/p>\n

“This death therefore was entirely preventable.”<\/p>\n

The name of the girl and all details which would identify her family have been permanently suppressed.<\/p>\n

Bike used to mow thistles<\/p>\n

Coroner Ryan said the girl lived with her parents on the farm and would often ride as a passenger on the bike as her father drove it around the property.<\/p>\n

On 23 March, 2024, her father was using the quad bike to mow thistles in a paddock, with the girl sitting on a plywood platform across the back seat.<\/p>\n

She was wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet but had no other protective clothing.<\/p>\n

“At one point, as [the father] was driving in a straight line at around 5km\/h, [the girl] fell backwards off the quad bike and was run over by the mower,” Coroner Ryan said.<\/p>\n

The father stopped the bike and lifted the mower off his daughter, helped by another family member who was nearby.<\/p>\n

The girl was in a “dire condition” and the two men did what they could to stem the bleeding from her wounds.<\/p>\n

Emergency services reached the rural property about 26 minutes after being called, and a paramedic assessed her and confirmed she had died.<\/p>\n

She had suffered “multiple injuries”.<\/p>\n

An investigation found nothing wrong with the bike, but the plywood tray on which the girl was sitting could be lifted about 12cm on the left side.<\/p>\n

A large cable tie holding the plywood onto the bike’s frame on that side had snapped.<\/p>\n

There were no handholds on the side of the frame and a warning label on the right mudguard of the bike said it should not be used to carry passengers.<\/p>\n

The girl had ridden on the bike frequently, but never before when the mower was attached and being operated.<\/p>\n

Bike may have hit rough ground<\/p>\n

The crash analyst considered that the girl probably fell backwards when the bike hit a rough patch of ground and the plywood board moved.<\/p>\n

The lack of a handhold on the left side of the frame meant she would not have been able to prevent herself from falling.<\/p>\n

“I appreciate children love to be involved with their parents particularly working on farms, and that generally they do so in a safe environment,” Coroner Ryan said.<\/p>\n

“But a young child riding unrestrained on an inherently unstable vehicle such as a quad bike cannot be described as being in a safe environment.<\/p>\n

“I note there is no suggestion [the father] was driving the quad bike in a reckless manner; he was driving slowly and in a straight line.<\/p>\n

“Nevertheless, due to a combination of factors [the girl] fell from the bike,” the coroner said.<\/p>\n

“This demonstrates the inherent danger of allowing young children to ride as passengers on quad bikes being utilised to perform farming tasks.”<\/p>\n

In suppressing the family’s identities, Coroner Ryan cited evidence about how family members were struggling to come to terms with what had happened.<\/p>\n

He said it would be “unjust” for the family to suffer further serious distress, which would be likely to adversely affect their mental health, through the publication of their identities.<\/p>\n

*This article was first published on The New Zealand Herald<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First published on Emergency services reached the farm within half an hour but the girl was found to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-176015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}