Mr Jones, 52, died after his car left the Gocup Road and caught fire in the early hours of Sunday, July 16.

Mr Jones’s body was taken to Newcastle to the Department of Forensic Medicine for formal identification and an autopsy to determine the exact cause of his death.

But 10 days after the accident, the family has been left in limbo as they still don’t know when forensic formalities will be concluded and Mr Jones’s body released

For Jill Jones, Mr Jones’s mother, the situation is “sheer madness”, and she is speaking in a bid to prevent other families from going through the same anguish.

Mrs Jones has been quick to praise the police officers and pathology staff she has dealt with, and says the problem is simply there are not enough of them.

“Mark’s autopsy was today (Wednesday) and there will be a dental examination on Friday,” she said.

“It’s just not satisfactory. It will be 16 or 17 days after he died – at the earliest – before we can bury him. We still just don’t know when we can hold his funeral. We feel like we are sitting around in limbo. There is no closure.”

Mrs Jones said relatives had travelled from interstate to be with the Jones family.

“Now they will have to go home again before the funeral.” she said.

Mrs Jones believes the state government needs to consider putting more money into NSW Health Pathology, so that its facilities can be boosted and additional services put into regional areas, to prevent a backlog at the Newcastle centre.

“The government has got to start to take some responsibility,” she said. “I want to say to them ‘we are real families’ and no one should have to go through this.”

Mrs Jones said her family had been overwhelmed by the support they had received after the death of her son, who had three children with wife Rachel.

“We knew our son had a wonderful, gentle heart and have been blown away by how many people feel the same way. We just want to give our son a beautiful send-off,” he said.

A spokeswoman for NSW Health Pathology said grief counsellors had been in touch with the Jones family about the “complex and sensitive case” and had provided them with a time frame.