'Changed forever': Family's grief after pregnant woman and baby's crash deaths

A week after getting her motorbike licence, Auckland florist Angelina Pierre took her Kawasaki for an impromptu spin around the block where she lived. 

The 23-year-old was eight months pregnant with her and partner Jadyn Schuster’s first child. 

She had been practising riding the 300cc motorbike that she had bought about six months earlier. 

But her decision to ride the bike on an afternoon in January 2024, without a safety helmet or any protective motorcycle clothing, proved fatal for her and her baby. 

Pierre was thrown from the machine when rounding a corner and suffered a “significant, non-survivable” head injury. 

Her baby, born by emergency caesarean, also suffered non-survivable injuries as a consequence of his mother’s injuries and died the following day. 

He was named Lazarus Juel Tamuera Schuster, a coroner’s finding said. 

The case featured in the Chief Coroner’s latest Recommendations Recap, which was released this week and contained summaries of coronial recommendations and comments made between October 1 and December 31, 2025. 

Coroner Erin Woolley said the Police Serious Crash Unit (SCU) concluded the main cause of the crash was that Pierre failed to negotiate a moderate right-hand bend, which may have been because of her riding inexperience. 

The police investigation also found she was not wearing a helmet or any protective motorcycle clothing when she fell off the bike, which was not travelling at speed. 

Neither was there anything on the road that might have caused Pierre to lose control of the motorcycle, police said after their investigation. 

Family’s grief still raw 

The family is still coming to terms with their loss and their grief remains raw. 

Pierre’s mother declined to talk but her mother-in-law, Tufa Schuster, told NZME that although it had been two-and-a-half years since her death, it remained “absolutely still fresh” in their memory. 

She described Pierre as someone with “a lot of heart, and who loved big”. 

She was born in the Cook Islands and came to New Zealand as a child. 

Pierre achieved well at school and in 2018 was named co-head prefect at Ōtāhuhu College, which at the time announced she would represent the college with pride and be an excellent example for the community to follow. 

In 2024, the college introduced a special new award, the “Angelina Pierre Personality Plus Award” in recognition of a “treasured former student”. 

At her funeral service, attendees were asked to wear bright, tropical island wear in honour of Pierre’s vibrant spirit. 

College sweethearts 

Tufa Schuster said her son Jadyn met Pierre when they were in college and their relationship grew from there. 

She said Pierre had a huge amount of compassion, kindness and respect for others. 

“If she saw someone on the side of the road, in a broken-down car, she would stop to help. At times, my son would be concerned, especially if she was on her own. 

Jadyn Schuster and partner Angelina Pierre, who was eight months pregnant with their first child when she and the baby were killed in a motorbike accident in January 2024. Photo / Supplied / Tufa Schuster 

“But she did that vigorously. She would walk into a shop and buy food for someone sitting in front of the shop with a container.” 

Pierre’s decision to ride her motorbike without a helmet was almost unfathomable. 

“It’s hard. It’s really hard, because the day before, she and Jaydn had gone to the velodrome for their practice run, and she did say that that would be her last ride until [their] baby was born.” 

Neither had she ridden on the road, Schuster said. 

“On that day, when I got home from work, we were laughing in the kitchen, belly-rubbing her tummy, and I gave her a little bit of a lecture that, from then on, it would be Jadyn and I running errands for her.” 

Pierre went to have a rest, but then friends arrived and the motorbike came out. 

“And then within half an hour of me and her laughing, things changed. They tragically changed,” Schuster said. 

She was among the first on the scene after Jadyn, who was on the ground and holding the critically injured Pierre. 

“I’m almost grateful we were with her in that moment but it’s changed us forever. 

“We can’t unsee the stuff that we saw.” 

Last ride 

On the afternoon of January 22, 2024, after friends had arrived at the couple’s Ōtara home, they took turns riding the motorcycle around the block, Coroner Woolley said. 

Pierre had recently moved back with her partner, having experienced an episode of depression for which she had been treated. 

Pierre, who got her motorbike licence on January 15, completed one full circuit around the block, which was captured on CCTV footage at a nearby address that she rode past. 

As she was completing a second lap, she rounded a moderate right-hand bend but the motorcycle veered to the left and fell over before hitting the base of a power pole. 

Pierre was thrown from the motorcycle and hit her head on a steel railing installed on the road by the entrance to a driveway. 

Coroner Woolley said she suffered a significant, non-survivable head wound and died later that day in Middlemore Hospital. 

Baby Lazarus received a brain injury through lack of oxygen or blood flow to the brain and died the following day. 

Auckland Transport attended the scene with the police and identified that the steel piping fixed to the road and on which Pierre hit her head was “not usual and potentially not lawful”, Coroner Woolley said. 

Angelina Pierre was born in the Cook Islands and came to New Zealand as a child. In 2018 she was named co-head prefect at Ōtāhuhu College. Photo / Supplied / Tufa Schuster 

She understood that Auckland Transport had since arranged for the piping to be removed. 

The family also raised concerns a dog may have chased Pierre before the crash. 

Coroner Woolley said a police investigation and CCTV footage showed no evidence a dog was involved in the accident. 

She said the circumstances of the crash illustrated the importance of knowing how to ride a motorcycle safely. 

“Motorcycle riders are more vulnerable to injury than other people on the road,” Coroner Woolley said in stressing the importance of wearing full safety gear including gloves, boots, jackets and pants and an approved safety helmet. 

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.