Triple Fatality Crash Inquest Adjourned

Posted by Gold FM on 04/08/2011

An inquest was held at the Waihi Court yesterday into the fatal crash on January the 21st this year that claimed the lives of two local teenagers and decorated soldier Mark Sydney. The brother of Mark Sydney issued a challenge to the two boys who survived the crash to teach other teenagers about the dangers of ignoring restricted license laws.

44 year old father of three Mark Sydney, 17 year old Dylan Perkinson and 16 year old Vance Williams died at the scene, and passengers Kane Stewart and Brennan Mayor were badly injured.

Autopsy results showed that Dylan Perkinson, who was believed to be driving, had a blood alcohol reading of 57 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The youth limit is 30mg. Dylan held a restricted license, and his upset family plan to hire a private investigator to discover whether Dylan was the actual driver.

Passenger Kane Stewart told the inquest the other youth who died, Vance Williams, offered to be the 'sober driver', and although he couldn't remember much about the crash he remembered Vance driving them back from Whangamata in Dylan's car and couldn't think why Dylan would have got behind the wheel, unless Vance was tired.

Passions ran high at the inquest and Mark Sydney's brother Ernie told the surviving boys and their families his brother had spent over 20 years in the army, had been awarded the Order Of Merit for serving overseas in Bosnia and his brother's death had shaken his family.

Coroner Peter Ryan ordered an adjournment to allow Dylan Perkinson's family time to complete their investigation, and said the fatal crash would not have happened if the teens had followed restricted licence rules.