Jaydon Tackney. Photo / Supplied
Jaydon Tackney crammed a lot into 21 years but his death has left his family wondering what more he could have achieved.
"He had a whole life ahead of him that he's missed out on and we missed out on seeing what it was going to be like," his father Darryl said.
On November 25, he was driving his Harley-Davidson west along Brighton Rd when Linda Christine Walsh (63) pulled her car out into his path at the intersection with Viscount Rd, which she had used for 40 years.
Jaydon Tackney died at the scene.
Walsh was charged with careless driving causing death and pleaded not guilty.
But after a week-long judge-alone trial in May, Judge David Robinson found the charge proven.
This week he ordered the defendant to pay $13,418 reparation and banned her from driving for three months.
"I can be absolutely satisfied you won't come before the court again," the judge said.
"This was seconds of inattention, if that."
Part of the reparation would contribute to the restoration of Jaydon Tackney's motorcycle, which his father had been repairing since the incident.
"Whenever I work on it, I feel like he's right beside me," Darryl Tackney said.
The project was still some way from completion and he had no definite plans for it once it was finished.
"I'll probably just look at it, I think. We might ride it once a year, I don't know."
Darryl Tackney sat through the entire trial, painfully reliving the final moments of his son's life as the court considered where the blame should lie.
The outcome, he said, made no difference to his outlook.
He simply wanted to remember Jaydon.
"He was my boy ... He was my sidekick, you know. A wee chip off the block," he said.
"He packed an awful lot into 21 years. He lived every moment."
Jaydon Tackney had been riding motorbikes since the age of 4 and was "a very skilled rider".
He was an apprentice refrigeration engineer but Darryl Tackney said his true passion involved vehicles.
At the time of his death, the pair had been working on a special "father-son project" — restoring a 1975 Vauxhall Viva and refitting it with a V6 engine.
They only had the electrics to complete.
In the end, Jaydon Tackney's friends stepped in and got the car running so it could be driven at his funeral.
It was a fitting tribute to a man who was always keen to help others.
"When he helped, he'd go above and beyond. It didn't matter what scenario it was," Darryl Tackney said.
"He just got in and did things."
Jaydon Tackney's mother Jo Barclay described him as her "tower of strength".
He was only weeks away from a planned trip to Whangarei to visit her when the crash occurred.
She was now simultaneously soothed and tortured by her memories.
"I feel very lost not hearing his voice, not getting his calls, there's no more photos. It's all gone," Ms Barclay said.
Darryl Tackney also felt his boy's absence every day but knew his son would not want him to be overwhelmed by grief.
He took solace in one small fact.
"Jaydon loved anything on wheels," he said.
"He went out doing what he loved doing the most and I take a tiny wee bit of comfort out of that."
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