The man who cut down a tree that tragically fell onto and killed a seven-year-old boy acted with “culpable negligence”, according to a coroner.
Akira James Lynd-Carroll lost his life in August 2015 while out on an illegal wood cutting trip at Mount Lloyd near New Norfolk with his brother, sister, mother and her partner, Joshua George Hector Clark.
Clark, who had previously been convicted of Akira’s manslaughter and served time in prison, was felling the tree on Forestry Tasmania land when the incident occurred.
“Clark so inexpertly felled the tree that it struck the vehicle in which he had told Akira, his siblings and their mother to stay, which was parked on a road too close to the tree,” Coroner Simon Cooper said in his findings.
“While Akira’s mother and brother were uninjured, and his sister received minor injuries, Akira suffered massive, un-survivable, head injuries.”
Akira was airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital with extensive head, skull and brain injuries but passed away the next day.
Although Cooper did not make as specific recommendations as part of his investigation, he noted that the theft of wood from forest reserves is “apparently a significant problem”.
“However, I do not consider the illegality per se had sufficient causal nexus with Akira’s death,” he said.
“Rather, I consider his death was the result of Clark’s culpable negligence in relation to how he felled the tree which struck and killed Akira.”
