Coroner Erin Woolley said the Police Serious Crash Unit (SCU) concluded the main cause of the crash was that Pierre failed to negotiate a moderate right-hand bend, which may have been because of her riding inexperience. <\/p>\n
The police investigation also found she was not wearing a helmet or any protective motorcycle clothing when she fell off the bike, which was not travelling at speed.<\/p>\n
Neither was there anything on the road that might have caused Pierre to lose control of the motorcycle, police said after their investigation.<\/p>\n
Family\u2019s grief still raw<\/p>\n
The family is still coming to terms with their loss and their grief remains raw.<\/p>\n
Pierre\u2019s mother declined to talk but her mother-in-law, Tufa Schuster, told NZME that although it had been two-and-a-half years since her death, it remained \u201cabsolutely still fresh\u201d in their memory. <\/p>\n
She described Pierre as someone with \u201ca lot of heart, and who loved big\u201d.<\/p>\n
She was born in the Cook Islands<\/a> and came to New Zealand as a child.<\/p>\n Pierre achieved well at school and in 2018 was named co-head prefect at \u014ct\u0101huhu College, which at the time announced she would represent the college with pride and be an excellent example for the community to follow.<\/p>\n In 2024, the college introduced a special new award, the \u201cAngelina Pierre Personality Plus Award\u201d in recognition of a \u201ctreasured former student\u201d. <\/p>\n At her funeral service, attendees were asked to wear bright, tropical island wear in honour of Pierre\u2019s vibrant spirit. <\/p>\n College sweethearts<\/p>\n Tufa Schuster said her son Jadyn met Pierre when they were in college and their relationship grew from there.<\/p>\n She said Pierre had a huge amount of compassion, kindness and respect for others. <\/p>\n \u201cIf she saw someone on the side of the road, in a broken-down car, she would stop to help. At times, my son would be concerned, especially if she was on her own.<\/p>\n \u201cBut she did that vigorously. She would walk into a shop and buy food for someone sitting in front of the shop with a container.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierre\u2019s decision to ride her motorbike without a helmet was almost unfathomable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard. It\u2019s really hard, because the day before, she and Jaydn had gone to the velodrome for their practice run, and she did say that that would be her last ride until [their] baby was born.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither had she ridden on the road, Schuster said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn that day, when I got home from work, we were laughing in the kitchen, belly-rubbing her tummy, and I gave her a little bit of a lecture that, from then on, it would be Jadyn and I running errands for her.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierre went to have a rest, but then friends arrived and the motorbike came out.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then within half an hour of me and her laughing, things changed. They tragically changed,\u201d Schuster said. <\/p>\n She was among the first on the scene after Jadyn, who was on the ground and holding the critically injured Pierre.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m almost grateful we were with her in that moment but it\u2019s changed us forever. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t unsee the stuff that we saw.\u201d<\/p>\n Last ride<\/p>\n On the afternoon of January 22, 2024, after friends had arrived at the couple\u2019s \u014ctara<\/a> home, they took turns riding the motorcycle around the block, Coroner Woolley said.<\/p>\n Pierre had recently moved back with her partner, having experienced an episode of depression for which she had been treated.<\/p>\n Pierre, who got her motorbike licence on January 15, completed one full circuit around the block, which was captured on CCTV footage at a nearby address that she rode past. <\/p>\n As she was completing a second lap, she rounded a moderate right-hand bend but the motorcycle veered to the left and fell over before hitting the base of a power pole.<\/p>\n Pierre was thrown from the motorcycle and hit her head on a steel railing installed on the road by the entrance to a driveway. <\/p>\n Coroner Woolley said she suffered a significant, non-survivable head wound and died later that day in Middlemore Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n Baby Lazarus received a brain injury through lack of oxygen or blood flow to the brain and died the following day.<\/p>\n Auckland Transport attended the scene with the police and identified that the steel piping fixed to the road and on which Pierre hit her head was \u201cnot usual and potentially not lawful\u201d, Coroner Woolley said.<\/p>\nJadyn Schuster and partner Angelina Pierre, who was eight months pregnant with their first child when she and the baby were killed in a motorbike accident in January 2024. Photo \/ Supplied \/ Tufa Schuster<\/p>\n
Angelina Pierre was born in the Cook Islands and came to New Zealand as a child. In 2018 she was named co-head prefect at \u014ct\u0101huhu College. Photo \/ Supplied \/ Tufa Schuster<\/p>\n