Lock keys away: coroner
A CORONER has recommended a safe be installed at the residential care facility where NQ teen Bailey Pini stole an employee’s car, leading to his death in a fiery car crash.
The recommendation was handed down by Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson, two weeks after the coronial inquest into Bailey’s June 9, 2021, death in Bowen.
In delivering her findings, Ms Wilson recommended that the Central Queensland facility fit an “appropriate, dedicated key safe”, which could be fixed to the floor or wall.
It was heard that on June 8, 2021, Bailey, 13, and another boy, 14, broke into the locked office room where a staff member had placed her car keys.
The boys stole the employee’s car, driving it more than 200km to Bowen before Bailey crashed into a tree on Queens Rd.
The car burst into flames, with Bailey dying at the scene.
The inquest heard no additional funding was available for the organisation to roster a second staff member or emergency backup.
Noting that, Ms Wilson said the installation of a safe was the most “proactive” way to prevent more juvenile residents stealing vehicle keys.
“(The safe) could not be penetrated if a break-in to the office occurred,” Ms Wilson said. “The opportunity and temptation is therefore completely removed.”
Acknowledging budgeting shortcomings, Ms Wilson endorsed but did not formally recommend the department fund any care provider for an “awake” rostered staff member on a “needs basis”.
“It should not be the case that the system is stretched to the point that a (staff member) becomes the last bastion between the residents and car keys,” she said.
Ms Wilson mused whether the measure could be implemented more widely. “Given the relevance of these issues to all residential facilities, there is perhaps wisdom in establishing whether such recommendations are applicable statewide,” Ms Wilson said.
The inquest heard the department had been unable to place Bailey in a residential facility closer to Bowen, due to the lack of licensed residential care services in the area, and the “small, sporadic needs” for children requiring that model of care.
To that, Ms Wilson found that given the “limited resources”, the facility had been the “best possible” placement for him, but in hindsight submitted that arrangements should have been made for Bailey to visit his family for the anniversary of his mother’s death.
Bailey, who had lost his mother to cancer the year before he went into care, was said to be spiralling behaviourally, with no other family members able to care for him.
Both the organisation and Department of Child Safety were found to have complied with relevant policies – none of which had prevented Bailey’s death.
“The department in their submission suggested each office also being fitted with an alarm in addition to a lock safe. I accept that as a sensible additional layer of protection,” Ms Wilson said.