New Year drive ends dreams

Sean Coe. Photo / Supplied

He should have been training with the New Zealand under-20 soccer squad, but instead he was lying in hospital paralysed from the waist down.

And Jonathan Ross, a passenger in a car involved in a horror crash on State Highway 1 at Horotiu on New Year's Day, was undergoing spinal surgery the day the 20-year-old driver, Sean Coe, was being farewelled by hundreds of mourners.

Coe crossed the centreline and collided with a van on SH1 at Horotiu about 8.30am on New Year's Day. He died the same day in Waikato Hospital. A group of disabled people in the van escaped injury but were badly shaken by the crash.

Clive Ross said his son Jonathan had been due to join a New Zealand under-20 soccer camp the day after the crash. But he was transferred from Waikato Hospital to Middlemore in Auckland for neck surgery on Friday.

"It's too early to say if it went well. At least for the meantime he is paralysed from the sternum downwards. His neck was significantly fractured in several places. The operation was to realign his neck and remove bone fragments from the top of his spine. He has numerous other injuries," he said.

"The doctors have told us that he won't walk and his chances of recovery are small, but miracles do happen."

Jonathan had no recollection of the accident. He was asleep in a sleeping bag at the time of the crash. His seatbelt saved his life.

The Auckland pair had been at a New Year's Eve party in Hamilton but after midnight they took their friend's car and went to another party in Mt Maunganui. They were returning to Hamilton when the crash happened.

Jonathan had been a talented soccer player since he was 5 years old, playing for Onehunga's premier team. He had just been offered a soccer scholarship with St Thomas University in Miami. Clive Ross offered the Coe family his condolences and said he was sorry he couldn't go to the funeral because he had to stay at the hospital.

"Sean was a lovely boy. I visited him in the ward and saw him on the machine keeping him alive. I didn't want him [Jonathan] to go to Hamilton because it was such a huge opportunity with the All Whites' training squad," he said. Onehunga Sport coach and assistant All Whites coach Brian Turner said Ross had been "earmarked for bigger things. It was a terrible shock when I got the call".

Coe's father Michael told the Herald on Sunday his son was a quiet person who was modest about his achievements.

He had finished his diploma of 3D animation at Media Design School in July and was due to graduate in visual effects and motion graphics this year.

He designed his first website when he was 13. During his studies he freelanced as a web designer but wanted to work in television advertising.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at Henderson on Friday and viewed samples of his work. Michael Coe said all his dreams for his son were shattered. "When you're 20 you think you are invincible. When young people drink too much, as much as they believe in not drink-driving, once they are drunk they can't make that decision.

"They don't think. I'm assuming Sean was drunk - no one has told me he was," he said. Blood tests were taken at the hospital but he had not been told of the results.

The last thing he said to his son was "be safe". "I gave him a hug and said be safe. At midnight I text my two sons telling them to enjoy themselves and be safe," he said.

Coe's mother Nellie said hearing of her son's death was every parent's worst nightmare. She was in Brisbane at the time and returned to her son's bedside in Waikato Hospital. "It was heart-wrenching, being told he might not make it," she said.

She described her son as a talented artist and couldn't understand the decision to drive. "He was always careful about drinking and driving."

His organs were donated to two recipients. "I would like to meet them one day," Nellie Coe said.