Family’s fight for answers

THE family of a Bowen teenager who allegedly stole and fatally crashed a car while in state care earlier this year say they are still completely in the dark about the circumstances leading up to the tragedy.

It has been three months since 13-year-old Bailey Pini and another boy living in a government-run group home at Sarina allegedly stole their carer’s car and drove it to Bailey’s home town of Bowen.

It was there the car crashed and burst into flames, killing Bailey and sending the other boy to hospital.

Bailey’s sister, Troydon Pini, 30, said the family had since been able to ask the coroner any questions they had about Bailey’s final moments.

But it was the beginning of the tragic chain of events they still had no clarity on.

There had been one phone call, Troydon said, from the department about two months ago.

But communications broke down as soon as Troydon began asking for an explanation as to how Bailey and the other boy got their hands on car keys.

“The second I mentioned that, she just shut down,” Troydon said of the woman on the other end of the line.

Troydon said there had been no further contact from anyone representing the Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs Department since then.

The family was now looking into their legal options as an alternative avenue to ensuring what happened to Bailey never happened to another child in state care.

But going up against the resources of a government department is a task Troydon has had difficulty convincing anyone to take on.

“I have phoned around, but no one wants to take the case, it’s like it’s above their pay grade,” she said.

Apart from driving positive change for children in the residential care system, Troydon said all the Pini family wanted was to bring an end to the guessing game they were constantly engaged in.

“We sit around wondering, maybe this happened, maybe that happened, but we know nothing,” she said.