Youth motocross in focus as coroner orders joint inquest into four fatalities

Ten-year-old Jack Willson died in a motocross accident in Taupō in April 2023.

By Dana Johannsen of RNZ

The deaths of four young people in separate motocross accidents over a two-year span will be the focus of a joint coronial inquest, placing the safety of the sport under scrutiny.

At a case management hearing in Auckland on Monday, Coroner Ian Telford ordered a joint inquest into the deaths of Jack Willson, 10, Luke Ngeru, 15, Eli Hankins, 12, and Wai’aryn Mills, 14. The boys died in accidents between April 2023 and September 2025 at tracks around the North Island.

Telford said that while each case was individually challenging, taken together they presented “a very complex matrix of issues” that required careful and coordinated examination.

The precise scope of the inquest is yet to be determined.

“At this stage it is impossible to say what the scope of the inquest will be ... I’m conscious that a lot of work needs to be undertaken before we are at that stage,” he said.

Telford said he anticipated one of the key issues for the inquest to determine is whether “the public interest would be served by these matters being investigated by other authorities”.

Motorcycling New Zealand and the four boys’ respective clubs will be interested parties to the inquest.

Telford acknowledged the weight of the proceedings for the families involved.

“It is without question an extraordinarily difficult day for everybody involved, and particularly the parents of Jack, Luke, Eli and Wai’aryn,” he said.

“No parent would wish to find themselves in a coroner’s court speaking about their children in such dreadful circumstances.”

The joint inquest builds on earlier proceedings into Jack’s death. The Cambridge 10-year-old died after a crash while racing at the Digger McEwen Motocross Park in Taupō in April 2023.

Telford had previously issued findings on the specific circumstances of Jack’s death, with a second stage planned for October last year to examine how similar serious crashes might be prevented.

That hearing was paused after Telford became the responsible coroner for three other young riders who died in what he described as “broadly similar circumstances”.

Details of those cases were temporarily suppressed to allow their families to be informed of the process. The suppression order was lifted on Monday.

The additional cases to be considered involve Luke, who died in September 2023 following a motocross accident in Whanganui; Eli, who died in February 2025 after sustaining a serious head injury during a club day at Auckland’s Pukekohe Motorcycle track; and Wai’aryn, of Pirongia, who died in September last year after a training accident on a Huntly track.

The inquest will seek to establish the circumstances of each death and to consider whether any broader recommendations can be drawn.

A timetable for the inquest is yet to be set.

- RNZ