The death of a 10-year-old boy when his motorcycle and a Nissan sports utility vehicle collided on a Duntroon farm in 2008 was "an outcome of a number of, in themselves, innocuous events", Dunedin coroner David Crerar has said.
Mr Crerar carried out an inquest on November 27 last year in the Oamaru Coroner's Court into the death on October 6, 2008, of Matthew James Richardson at his parents' dairy farm.
Yesterday, Mr Crerar released a final finding on the death.
In it, he said Matthew died as a result of injuries received when the motorcycle he was riding collided with an SUV being driven by a farm employee.
The employee, William Bronkhorst, had started work on the farm the day before the fatal crash.
He was driving on a farm track and Matthew was coming in the opposite direction.
At the brow of the hill, the two vehicles collided.
Despite attempts by his parents, Andrew and Barbara Richardson, to revive Matthew, he died at the scene.
Mr Richardson told the inquiry that Matthew had been taught to ride carefully and keep as far left as possible, even on farm tracks.
Mr Bronkhorst said he was travelling "close to 20kmh and not more than 30kmh" and to the left of the track.
However, evidence provided by police to the inquiry estimated his speed at between 33kmh and 44kmh.
Mr Crerar said there was no evidence that either Matthew or Mr Bronkhorst was driving in an unsafe manner or carelessly.
Matthew was travelling "slowly and conservatively".
Mr Crerar made no comment on the discrepancy between Mr Bronkhorst's account of how fast he was travelling and the police estimate other than to say the police calculation was higher than Mr Bronkhorst's estimate.
However, he did say photographs and maps produced by police all indicated Mr Bronkhorst was "slightly to the right of centre of the track as he braked" and stopped.
When he hit Matthew's motorcycle he was almost exactly in the middle of the track.
Mr Crerar recommended a copy of his finding be sent to the Department of Labour to assist in the analysis of farm deaths, particularly those involving motorcycles.
