Long work hours blamed for death of chef who crashed in Hastings - coroner

Long work hours are being blamed for the death of a chef who crashed in Hastings, the coroner says.

Perumal Dinakaran, 23, died after his car collided with a truck while driving to work.

He was a chef at a bar in Napier finishing work between 9 and 10pm most days. Just three weeks before the fatal crash he had begun a second job, restocking bread shelves in supermarkets, starting work at 5am.

At about 7:40am in May 2018, Dinakaran was driving along the Hawke's Bay Expressway towards Hastings to restock shelves at a supermarket. However, his trip took a tragic turn when his vehicle drifted across the centre line.

Dinakaran collided head-on with a truck travelling in the opposite direction, coroner Heidi Wrigley found. Dinakaran died at the scene.

Motorists who witnessed the fatal crash described Dinakaran's car drifting across the centre line into the logging truck's path. One said it appeared "as if [the driver] had fallen asleep or had a stroke or something", a media release from the coroner's court said.

Wrigley ultimately found Dinakaran's fatigue caused the collision.

Massey University sleep expert Leigh Signal told the coroner how fatigue can impair driving performance. Dr Signal said research showed those with five hours or less sleep in the previous 24 hours were eight times more likely to be involved in an injury-related incident while driving.

Dr Signal provided several recommendations including that employers educate workers on fatigue and its causes, the impact of fatigue on driving safely and how to manage the risk of fatigue while driving. She also recommended employers have processes for workers to follow if they were too fatigued to begin or continue a driving-related task.

Other recommendations included that employers make a clear distinction between the time required to drive from one location to the next and the time for rest breaks and that employers obtain details of their staff’s secondary employment to identify and manage fatigue risks.

Wrigley said it is imperative action is taken to reduce fatigue-related crashes, as the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi reports that in 2020, 20 deaths and 113 series injuries sustained on New Zealand roads were related to driver fatigue.

Wrigley recommends WorkSafe and Waka Kotahi collaborate together with relevant industry organisations and fatigue experts to develop and publicise comprehensive risk management resources, and training opportunities for businesses and workers relating to driving when fatigued.

She expects that, if followed, her recommendations will bring about changes in working hours and opportunities for rest, which will reduce the likelihood of staff being fatigued when they need to drive and, ultimately, prevent further deaths like Dinakaran's.

"Bringing about changes in workplace training, systems and processes [will] make it more likely that workers will choose not to drive when dangerously fatigued and ensure that the risks involved in driving when fatigued are effectively managed," Wrigley said.

In response, Worksafe advised the coroner it had refreshed its fatigue-related guidance in

2021 and is developing resources with assistance from Massey University's Sleep/Wake Research Centre. Similar work is also being carried out by Waka Kotahi, which recently completed a pilot of a shift worker driver fatigue tool that may eventually be made available to businesses.

Since the crash, Dinakaran's employer, George Weston Foods, has added a fatigue module to its staff training and started recording all hours worked by bread merchandisers, including those in secondary employment. 

Work was also being undertaken to ensure bread merchandisers received regular fatigue-related notifications and reminders electronically.