'Wonderful kids' killed as father's ute hits motocross bike

They were just ordinary, popular little boys. Full of energy. Full of personality.

And they had been told never to ride their 70cc motocross bike on the road.

But on Thursday evening, Ben Norwood, 7, and his brother Jack Norwood, 5, did exactly that.

They weren't far from home. They had ridden their bike beyond the long, winding driveway to the family's Manawatu farmhouse and turned onto the usually quiet, gravel no-exit Opawe Rd in the shadow of the Ruahine Ranges.

Not far from their homestead's cattlestop, the road turns uphill and it was on this sweeping bend, the view obscured by trees, that their father struck them in his four-wheel-drive as he headed home.

He had no way to stop on the loose gravel or even swerve his ute away from his sons.

Already the police have said the boys' devastated father cannot be blamed for what was an accident.

"There was no fault on the Dad's side," Constable Mark Glentworth of Ashhurst said yesterday.

The boys are thought to have died almost instantly. Their father called 111, but his sons were dead by the time a rescue helicopter arrived.

Mr Glentworth knew the family, and spent much of Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning with the boys' parents and 9-year-old brother.

A father of three himself, he knew the boys as popular, happy children who had been told by their parents not to ride their bike on the road.

"They were fantastic children, wonderful kids," he said.

"Full of energy, personality. Some kids are sort of cheeky but a bit naughty. They weren't. They were just good kids.

"Absolutely wonderful."

Mr Glentworth said the family had moved to the sheep and beef farming district in recent years, but had relatives nearby who were supporting them.

The tight, rural community was also helping.

A police officer for 12 years, he said this was perhaps the worst accident he had attended because of the impact on the family, and because he knew them.

"I don't know how you'd begin to deal with it."

Nearby, at Awahou School, Ministry of Education and Victim Support counsellors helped the boys' classmates cope with the news.

Jack was a new entrant, starting after the Christmas holidays.

Ben had been at the school since he was 5. All three teachers at Awahou taught one or other of the three Norwood children.

Principal Chris Mitchell said that because Awahou had just 56 pupils, the teachers had been able to phone all the parents before the school day began to tell them what had happened.

"Something like this affects everyone. We gave the children the option of staying home.

"But the school's been a kind of gathering point for the community."

A special assembly was held for those who did go to school.