Trevor Fox

Written by Jessie Webb | 06 March 2010

By Chelsea Kopta

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RICHLAND, WA -- Eleven-year Trevor Fox, of Irrigon, crashed his bike and died this week at the Horn Rapids ORV Park in Richland.

Fox reportedly crashed his bike Thursday afternoon as he was practicing for the Pacific Racing Organization Northwest National MX Series this weekend. Benton County Coroner Rick Corson said he had a head injury and was taken to the hosptial but later died.

Fox had been competing for years. By 11, he was a regular on the moto and supercross circuit. Pictures we found online document his races across the region. Some were snapped from the Horn Rapids Park where he lost his life.

Action News first met him at the track when he was just eight. In 2007, Fox geared up and flashed a wide smile for Action News.

"It's jam-packed," Trevor Fox explained in 2007 about the crowded track. "It's really fun and I like to go fast and it's fun to be in the air."

It was a sense of foreshadowing no one could have predicted.

Fox was interviewed just a few days after another boy died at the ORV Park. 12-year-old Blake Webb fell from his bike and was accidentally hit by a 19-year-old rider from Walla Walla. There was no way to know then, that Fox would suffer a similar fate.

So far, friends have called it a fluke accident. Webb's death was also called a fluke, a risky sport that sometimes ends in tragedy.

After Webb's death, the company that manages the park, HRMC, ramped up safety protocals including adding more flaggers, seperate practice times and safety clocks. Plus Blake's parents, Jessi and Laurice Webb, of Rathdrum, Idaho, established the Blake Webb Motorcycle Safety Awareness Foundation to raise money for supplying the yellow safety flags to tracks around the region and promoting other safety measures.

The changes seemed to be working. For years, the Richland Fire Department responded to a couple dozen emergency calls at the park a year, peaking with 33 in 2006. But last year, firefighters responded to just 12 emergency calls, the lowest it's been in a decade.

Richland owns the land but HRMC manages the park. Reps for HRMC chose not to comment on camera.

The coroner said he's waiting on the doctors' reports to determine the cause of death. He will likely have those results Monday.