Young girl dies after falling from quad bike into path of farm equipment in Hawke’s Bay

A young girl is understood to have died after falling from a quad bike into the path of farm equipment it was towing on a private property in Hawke’s Bay.

Emergency services responded to the incident at rural Hawke’s Bay address about 2.30pm on Saturday.

Sadly, the person died at the scene.

It is believed the girl died after falling from a quad bike into the path of farm equipment, which was being towed.

WorkSafe was also notified of the incident but determined it not to be work-related following initial inquiries.

The death was referred to the Coroner.

On Tuesday, Coroner J P Ryan said the girl died in “particularly tragic circumstances” and granted an interim order suppressing her name and identifying details until the end of June.

“I accept that at this time when the family are no doubt struggling with the enormity of their loss and the particularly tragic circumstances of the death, they would be subjected to additional distress if the general public knew the identity of the deceased.”

Hato Hone St John said it responded to the incident with one ambulance, one first-response unit, one rapid-response unit and one clinical support vehicle.

There have been at least three other quad bike-related deaths in Hawke’s Bay in recent years including in Wairoa in 2018 and in Central Hawke’s Bay in 2020 and 2021.

Prior to Saturday’s incident, according to WorkSafe, there were seven other quad bike-related deaths around the country during the past 18 months, all on farms.