Finding made on fatal wheelie
But coroner unable to rule on the cause
A“very well-loved” Havelock North motel manager and experienced motorbike rider died after doing a wheelie then crashing into a wall, a coroner has found.
Donald Gregory Clifford, 27, died in April 2021 following the crash at his family’s Cherry Grove Motel in Havelock North, where he worked.
A report by Coroner Heather McKenzie released this week found the cause of Clifford’s death was a head injury. He was not wearing a helmet.
Coroner McKenzie concluded while the bike did not have a mechanical fault she could not make any “safe findings” as to why he had crashed into the wall because of the lack of evidence.
Clifford’s mother Karen Clifford said her son “was very well loved” by those who knew him and was a highly experienced rider who liked mentoring younger riders.
“It was an accident,” she said, following the coroner’s report being released.
“He wasn’t hooning around the hotel, the bike had a malfunction and it took off and hit the wall.”
Karen Clifford said he was just days away from launching a business running motorbike tours and he owned six motorbikes.
The coroner’s report stated that on the day of the crash, Clifford asked a mechanic friend to come by the motel to check over his bikes.
Clifford told his friend he was having difficulty with the throttle of a new motorcycle, and his mechanic mate adjusted it for him.
“While [the mechanic] was looking at Mr Clifford’s other motorcycle, Mr Clifford started the bike and rode out of the shed,” the report read. “He was not wearing a helmet. “A motel guest saw a person ‘speed past’ her unit on a motorcycle and do a wheelie.”
CCTV captured Clifford travelling at speed across a lawn and doing a wheelie but did not capture the crash, nor did anyone witness the crash.
The motel guest and the mechanic heard it and went outside to find Clifford on the ground.
The Serious Crash Unit (SCU) investigated and “observed that once Mr Clifford lowered his front wheel after the wheelie, he appears to have struggled to control the motorcycle before leaving the grass”.
The SCU investigation found the front wheel of the motorcycle was off the ground when it hit the wall.
Coroner McKenzie concluded that the motorcycle had no mechanical faults and the environment was not a factor.
“There is no evidence before me that [the mechanic’s] alteration of the throttle immediately before Mr Clifford set off had any impact on the bike’s handling.
“On the evidence before me, I cannot make any safe findings as to why Mr Clifford crashed into the wall. It might be that Mr Clifford was unable to regain control of the bike after ending the wheelie.
“However, because the crash was not witnessed and the CCTV camera footage did not include the crash itself, I cannot safely make a finding to this effect.”
She also concluded the cause of death was a head injury.
Toxicology testing confirmed THC, a constituent of cannabis, in Clifford’s
blood at the time of the crash.
Coroner McKenzie was “unable to say what, if any, part this played in the incident”.
A year after the crash, the Port Riders motorcycle club held a Don Clifford Memorial Ride in his memory around the South Island.