{"id":86544,"date":"2025-10-18T15:25:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86544\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T15:25:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:25:19","slug":"coroner-considers-joint-inquest-after-four-children-die-in-motocross-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86544\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner considers joint inquest after four children die in motocross crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JackJack Willson of Cambridge died at the age of 10 in a motocross crash. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Jack\u2019s father, John Willson<\/a>, a trained first responder and a Fire and Emergency New Zealand officer, said in his evidence in February he did not blame anyone for his son\u2019s death, but believed the accident happened because of a change in the design of the track.<\/p>\n

He said the change allowed the riders to take a corner more quickly than previously.<\/p>\n

In anticipation of taking the corner more quickly, Jack, a Pukekohe Motorcycle Club representative, took a \u201cwhoops\u201d bump leading up to the corner too fast.<\/p>\n

Willson said his son lost his centre of balance<\/a>, his feet came off the pegs and he went into a \u201csuperman\u201d position, holding on to the handles with his legs out. Jack \u201chit the throttle\u201d and the acceleration drove him into the ground head-first, causing his fatal injuries.<\/p>\n

Call for a joint inquest<\/p>\n

Telford held a case management conference on Thursday to hear views from Jack\u2019s family and Motocross New Zealand on a potential joint inquest.<\/p>\n

All were in favour of that approach.<\/p>\n

Telford said he had become the responsible coroner for another three young people who had died in \u201cbroadly similar circumstances\u201d to Jack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has, of course, changed the situation we all find ourselves in profoundly,\u201d Telford said.<\/p>\n

He said a joint inquest could lead to more \u201cconsolidated and cogent\u201d recommendations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis collectively is a dreadful situation \u2026 we are looking at the deaths of four children and I think we are united in a desire to do the very best we can to make the most good out of this situation as is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Telford said the deaths of the other children were relatively new and some of those families were not yet aware there would be a coroner\u2019s process.<\/p>\n

He said he would therefore not publicly name the other cases to allow time for the coronial office to contact those families.<\/p>\n

Jack\u2019s family\u2019s views<\/p>\n

John Willson said their family was supportive of a joint inquest to ensure a stronger outcome but reminded the coroner the long delays took an emotional toll on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite looking forward to today to get into the how. For that to be pushed back is quite emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked for timeframes to be put in place to ensure it did not drag out so they could try to move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand why [Jack\u2019s inquest needed to be delayed] and we understand it is for the greater good \u2026 Kids are still dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another case management conference will be held in about five weeks on a yet-to-be-determined date following discussions with the other families involved. <\/p>\n

If the decision is made to hold a joint inquiry, it might then proceed to a joint inquest.<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

Kelly Makiha<\/a> is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.<\/p>\n

Correction<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to clarify that a joint inquest has been proposed but not yet confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Willson of Cambridge died at the age of 10 in a motocross crash. Photo \/ Supplied Jack\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1061,4749,18205,12629,29422,15166,309,63677,3011,42,78,13999,13728,58723,43,31124,28702,13172,40,38,41,39,14905,1533,80],"class_list":["post-86544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-children","tag-childrens","tag-considers","tag-coroner","tag-crashes","tag-deaths","tag-die","tag-examined","tag-four","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-inquest","tag-joint","tag-motocross","tag-news","tag-riding","tag-similar","tag-spotlight","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-whether","tag-will","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86544","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=86544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}