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A coroner is calling for employers to ensure their staff are not too tired to get behind the wheel, after the death of a Napier chef who was working two jobs.
Perumal Dinakaran, 23, was killed in May 2018 after his car drifted across the centre line of the Hawke's Bay Expressway and collided with a logging truck.
Motorists who witnessed the fatal crash described how Dinakaran's car moved into the truck's path, with one saying it appeared "as if [the driver] had fallen asleep or had a stroke or something".
Three weeks before the fatal crash Dinakaran had begun a second job stocking bread in supermarkets, which started at 5am, after finishing his chef job between 9pm and 10pm.
Sleep expert professor Leigh Signal from the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at Massey University told the coroner that drivers who had five hours or less sleep in the previous 24 hours were eight times more likely to be involved in an injury-related accident.
Signal made several recommendations, including that employers educate workers on fatigue and its causes, impact and how to manage the risk while driving.
Employers should have processes for workers to follow if they were too fatigued to begin or continue a driving related task, she said.
Employers should allow time for rest breaks when requiring staff to drive from one location to another.
They should even obtain details of their staff's secondary employment to identify and manage fatigue risks, she said.
Coroner Heidi Wrigley said urgent action was needed to reduce fatigue related crashes.
"Waka Kotahi reports that in 2020, 20 deaths and 113 serious injuries sustained on New Zealand roads were related to driver fatigue."
She recommended that WorkSafe and Waka Kotahi work together with 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.
In response, WorkSafe said it had refreshed its fatigue related guidance in 2021, and was developing resources with assistance from Massey University's Sleep/Wake Research Centre.
Waka Kotahi recently completed a pilot of a shift worker driver fatigue tool, which it could make available to businesses in future.
Dinakaran's employer George Weston Foods told the coroner his work schedule had been designed to "optimise time for rest", and to ensure he had one day off a week.
Since the crash the company had 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 done to ensure bread merchandisers received regular fatigue related notifications and reminders electronically.
Coroner Wrigley said her recommendations could 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."
