Youths do burnouts after crash victim Jaydan Doorley’s funeral

A funeral celebrant says he tried to stop burnouts after the funeral of a young crash victim by driving an empty hearse through the middle of the crowd, only to be told by them to spin his wheels as well. SEE THE VIDEOS

Funeral home staff have expressed their disappointment that police did not respond to their calls for assistance on Friday when a homegrown “send-off” by friends of Jaydan Doorley escalated to what staff described as a riot.

Browns Funerals staff estimated around 300 people attended the funeral for Jaydan Doorley, the 21-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash in Kepnock on October 12, at the Branyan Gardens Crematorium and Garden of Rest Cemetery on Cummins Rd, Branyan on Friday afternoon.

Around 300 people attended Jaydan’s funeral service at the Branyan Gardens chapel, with his grandmother Diana Doorley telling those gathered about Jaydan’s active childhood surfing, swimming and fishing with his father John.

In a speech delivered by her father, Phil Dunn, Jaydan’s partner Star-Maree Dunn said he was “the most adventurous spontaneous guy, always on the go and craving the adrenaline rush of living life on the wild side”.

A crowd of over 300 people attended Jaydan Doorley's funeral at the Branyan Gardens Crematorium on Friday.

“And that’s why no-one could keep you away from your second love, that bike,” Star-Maree said.

Saying she “tried her absolute hardest” to stop Jaydan from riding his motorbike, Star-Maree relayed some hauntingly prescient words Jaydan had said to her and her mother shortly before the crash.

“I remember only recently you saying to me and my Mum, ‘if I’m going to die, I’m going to die doing something I love’,” she said.

Some of the crowd celebrating the life of Jaydan Doorley filming burnouts after his funeral service.

After the service, while Jaydan was being buried in the cemetery witnessed by a small gathering, around 200 people assembled on Cummins Rd while cars performed “skids” (burnouts) in the middle of the road.

Some of the crowd outside watching as burnouts are done after the funeral

CCTV footage provided by Browns Funerals shows two loudly revving vehicles, a grey sedan and a ute, performing stationary burnouts in the middle of Cummins Rd with large plumes of white smoke emanating from the rear of the vehicles, with a crowd of people cheering and filming with their mobile phones.

A video recorded by Jaydan’s partner, Star-Maree Dunn and posted on social media shows the sedan performing a slow burnout along the road, with people walking behind the car waving white smoke into their faces and voices heard saying “love you Jaydan”.

The gathering completely blocked Cummins Rd, with other vehicles shown in the video pulling over to the side of the road to avoid colliding with the cars doing burnouts.

Tyre markings from the burnouts line Cummings Rd outside the Branyan chapel.

A parent trying travel along Cummins Rd to pick up their child from nearby Avoca State School contacted the funeral home via Facebook messenger while the incident was unfolding, telling staff “there were people everywhere” and she was “intimidated” by the gathering.

The celebrant for Jaydan’s funeral and former principal of Brown’s Funerals, Michael Brown, unsuccessfully tried to break up the gathering by slowly driving the empty hearse through the middle of the crowd.

“I had hoped that this might discourage them, having a hearse in the midst,” Mr Brown said, a celebrant with 30 years’ experience.

“Well, that only lit them up more, and in retrospect it was not the right thing to do; I should have just stayed put, because I lost my cool.

“One kid said to me ‘light it up Granddad’.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life before.”

Celebrant for Jaydan’s funeral and former principal of Brown’s Funerals, Michael Brown, said he had never seen such 'riotous' scenes.

Anticipating the “skids” tribute due to the nature of Jaydan’s death, Brown’s Funerals had called police prior to the funeral to request a unit to drive by the chapel after the service.

Mr Brown and Brown’s Funerals business manager Amanda Brown said they were “disappointed” that police did not come to the scene in response to this initial call nor when staff called police as the incident was unfolding.

“We understand that police are busy people, and they’re always facing confrontation of some sort or another,” Mr Brown said.

“But all this confrontation could have been avoided had they simply just driven past.”

A Queensland Police Service spokesperson said QPS is aware of the incident and is reviewing footage.

“Drivers who intentionally endanger their lives, the lives of their passengers and other road users by choosing to engage in illegal hooning behaviour should expect to be charged by the Queensland Police Service,” the spokesperson said.

Jaydan’s partner, Star-Maree Dunn, downplayed any public concerns for safety, saying Jaydan “would have absolutely loved” the tribute.

Jaydan’s partner, Star-Maree Dunn said Jaydan would have absolutely loved the tribute.

“I understand the public’s opinion and concerns but the burnouts after the funeral were done on a quiet back road in honour of Jaydan and he would have absolutely loved it,” Ms Dunn said.

“It was a very emotional day for all, Jaydan was truly loved by so many.”

Other social media commenters also defended the tribute, saying it was customary to do burnouts as a way of farewelling friends.

“It’s not really hooning they were hardly going fast, it was just a nice burnout to say goodbye (to) a boy very well loved and known,” said Brittany Rose Campbell in a Facebook post.

“And it’s been done many times before, no one was in danger.”

Originally published as Youths do burnouts after crash victim Jaydan Doorley’s funeral