{"id":464322,"date":"2026-06-06T18:18:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T18:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/464322\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T18:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T18:18:37","slug":"desert-rd-triple-tragedy-aberdeen-school-in-hamilton-grieves-loss-of-young-pupil-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/464322\/","title":{"rendered":"Desert Rd triple tragedy: Aberdeen School in Hamilton grieves loss of young pupil James"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe will always remember him as a kind, thoughtful and quiet leader &#8211; a gentle giant who brought warmth and care to everyone around him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">The school highlighted James\u2019 proud participation in Pasifika, his love of Dog Man books, and for his effort on the sports field and all aspects of school life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cOur thoughts, love, and sincerest sympathies are with James\u2019 family, friends, and everyone who knew and loved him during this incredibly difficult time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cRest in peace, James. You will be so dearly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Aberdeen School said the community was grappling with an \u201cunimaginable loss\u201d and encouraged wh\u0101nau to support <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/desert-road-crash-victims-named-as-mother-and-two-children\/7XSJG3PUEFBERA5RO3SYSRGKAM\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/desert-road-crash-victims-named-as-mother-and-two-children\/7XSJG3PUEFBERA5RO3SYSRGKAM\/\">a Givealittle page set up to help cover funeral costs and assist James\u2019 older sister<\/a>, who also attends the school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">James\u2019 sister Sully, 11, was the sole survivor of the crash. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Leidy\u2019s eldest daughter, Marcela, was not involved in the crash. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">The Herald understands Leidy migrated to New Zealand from Colombia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Members of the Colombian expat community have paid tribute to the family online. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">One man said their deaths left \u201cus with immense pain that is difficult to put into words\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cRest in peace. Your memory will live forever in our hearts.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Emergency services were called to the two-vehicle crash on State Highway 1, Wai\u014duru just before 3am on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/whanganui-chronicle\/news\/3-people-dead-2-injured-and-1-missing-in-serious-sh1-desert-road-crash\/ZBDRFFFQXJGZFD2BZMHH7NBU5E\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/whanganui-chronicle\/news\/3-people-dead-2-injured-and-1-missing-in-serious-sh1-desert-road-crash\/ZBDRFFFQXJGZFD2BZMHH7NBU5E\/\">Police said three people died at the scene<\/a> and two suffered serious injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Seven people died over King\u2019s Birthday weekend \u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/new-zealands-road-toll-shows-our-driving-culture-needs-to-change-editorial\/premium\/ZV6B36AX6NFYDFPTNZIEQYGJXA\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/new-zealands-road-toll-shows-our-driving-culture-needs-to-change-editorial\/premium\/ZV6B36AX6NFYDFPTNZIEQYGJXA\/\"> the highest toll for the June holiday since 11 people lost their lives in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton earlier told NZME the crash was devastating for the community. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cMy thoughts go out to the families that are involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cLong weekends tend to be vulnerable to crashes &#8230; with the extra volume of traffic and that location, Desert Rd, can be quite lonely and isolated, and so people quite often get into trouble that way,\u201d Kirton said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Director of road policing Superintendent Steve Greally said the losses were \u201cabsolutely gutting\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe are thinking of their families today, while they deal with the awful reality that their lives will never be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe will always remember him as a kind, thoughtful and quiet leader &#8211; a gentle giant who brought&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15122,75537,1558,6325,3549,7410,6179,235299,6288,78,14054,16099,27981,13489,2225,111,43,139,69,1118,54757,28142,2642,15120,4062,35144,12628,27561,4741],"class_list":["post-464322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-8yearold","tag-aberdeen","tag-been","tag-birthday","tag-crash","tag-desert","tag-died","tag-grieves","tag-hamilton","tag-in","tag-james","tag-kind","tag-kings","tag-leader","tag-loss","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-pupil","tag-quiet","tag-rd","tag-remembered","tag-school","tag-thoughtful","tag-tragedy","tag-triple","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464322","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=464322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}