Tragedy at Northland school fundraiser

A motocross rider was killed when he smashed into a bank at a fundraising event being held for a small Northland school yesterday afternoon.

Residents of Tangowahine, 13km northeast of Dargaville, said up to 300 people paid $25 a head to participate in a fun trail ride for two-wheeled and four-wheeled bikes across 100km of farmland and forestry land.*

It was the fourth annual event held to raise money for Tangowahine Primary School, which has about 30 pupils.

* CORRECTION: In the original version of this story, we incorrectly stated that the event was a "race". There was, in fact, no element of competition involved.