Mount Maunganui train death: Jorja-Ray Smith’s family speaks out

Jorja-Ray Smith, 11, pictured at the start of the year. Photo / Supplied

The young girl who died after being hit by a train in Mount Maunganui has been described as a “precious gift” and a “special angel that came for a brief visit”.

The whānau of 11-year-old Jorja-Ray Smith has spoken out for the first time after she was struck by a freight train and killed at the Hewletts Rd level crossing while biking home from Mount Maunganui Intermediate School on July 31 about 2.55pm.

Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times from her Mount Maunganui home, Te Paea Smith, Jorja-Ray’s mother, said she and Jorja-Ray’s father, Ray Smith, “only got 11 short years with her”.

“I still feel she’s here - I still can’t comprehend that she’s not here.”

Jorja-Ray Smith’s great-grandfather, Manea Ngatai, said she “had everything to live for”.

“We miss her because she was outgoing and full of life ... It’s so sad that she went so early in her life.

“I’m 73 years old and I wish it was me [rather] than her. She still had a life to live, [whereas] mine is nearly over, I suppose when you look at it. That’s the sad thing about it, you know.”

Jorja-Ray Smith, 11, pictured at the start of the year.

Members of the Mount Maunganui community have raised concerns about the safety of the intersection where she was killed, including Allan Goodhall whose wife, Kumiko Goodhall, died in 2010 after being hit by a train while crossing the railway lines at Matapihi on her bike.

A rail union representative said the crossing “doesn’t seem to have a hell of a lot of protection” and Mount Maunganui Intermediate School principal Melissa Nelson said the school, where Jorja-Ray was a student, would support any changes to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

KiwiRail is investigating the incident and has said it will look at “possible improvements” at the crossing.

Nelson also said Jorja-Ray was a “delightful, happy, engaged and valuable” member of the school’s family.

Flowers and messages have been left at the railway crossing where Jorja-Ray was killed by a train on July 31. Photo / Alex Cairns

Te Paea said Jorja-Ray was born in Mount Maunganui and was whāngai. Whāngai is the Māori tradition of children being raised by someone other than their birth parents - usually a relative.

“On the night she was born, I was there to catch her. And I put her on my chest ... and I just said: ‘Hello Jorja-Ray’. And from then on, she was ours.”

Te Paea said she and Ray moved to Queensland in Australia when Jorja-Ray was 18 months old before returning home when she was 8. Jorja-Ray went to Omanu Primary School before Mount Maunganui Intermediate.

She described Jorja-Ray as “quirky,” “funny” and a “happy girl”.

Te Paea said Jorja-Ray had many friends who lived on the same street as them.

“[She] loved swimming. They have the beach just here so any hot day they were down there. Just loved being with her friends.”

She said Jorja-Ray loved Chinese food and liked to cook noodles, toasted sandwiches and poached eggs.

“Whenever the kids were here, if there were sausage rolls or little pies in the freezer, well they’d be gone. They’d just throw them in the air fryer but she cooked for everybody. She knew how to look after herself because she loved eating. She was a big girl - she’s nearly six-foot-tall at [age] 11.”

Te Paea said she took Jorja-Ray and her friends to see the Barbie movie recently, which Jorja-Ray “loved”.

“She really was at that stage where she wasn’t so shy - she was really coming out and it’s just awful that it happened just as she was coming out of her shell.”

Te Paea said Jorja-Ray had joined the kapa haka group at the Whareroa Marae and was “just starting to bloom” and “get the gist of it all”.

Messages for 11-year-old Jorja-Ray Smith at the site where she was killed. Photo / Alex Cairns

She planned to post photos on Facebook of Jorja-Ray “every day as we come across them”. She also planned to visit Jorja-Ray’s school on Friday to thank them for their “amazing send-off”.

“The whole school, it was just so heartfelt and sincere and just beautiful. Tears were rolling down their eyes as they were doing this beautiful haka for Jorja.”

Te Paea said the generosity and kindness of people had been “amazing” and there had been “plenty of wairua [spirit] here”.

She described her daughter as a “precious gift” and a “special angel that came for a brief visit”.

“I don’t ever want any parents to get the message we got last Monday.”

Ray Smith said his daughter loved making artwork and was “just on the cusp of being a young lady”.

“She was pretty much an impressionable young lady, fairly well-travelled, everybody that met her fell in love with her. And she really loved her [pet] animals ... the guinea pigs, the dogs.”

Ngatai said Jorja-Ray was one of nine great-grandchildren and she would be remembered for her “happy-go-lucky” smile.

He said he was “very happy and proud” that she “lived her life to the fullest”.

Ngatai said she had some “very close friends” and classmates who went from primary school to intermediate school with her.

“She got on well with anybody.”

Ngatai said about 800 people attended Jorja-Ray’s tangi on Thursday at Whareroa Marae.

He said a lot of people got up and spoke about her, including her classmates, and children also performed a haka.

“They did a big mural type of thing where all the kids put how they miss her.”

Ngatai said Jorja-Ray’s death had been an “eye-opener” for him.

“Because when they go to school, we expect them to come home.’'

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.