A morning of sightseeing followed by fruitpicking was enough for a Hawke's Bay seasonal worker to fall asleep at the wheel of his car before crashing into another vehicle, killing himself and one of his passengers, an inquest has heard.
Hastings coroner Peter Dennehy yesterday ruled the deaths of Javed Ahmad, 30, and Afaq Amin, 32, were caused by injuries they received in the April 3, 2003, accident on State Highway 2 at Te Hauke.
Police evidence said Mr Ahmad, the driver of the vehicle, was killed almost instantly when his northbound vehicle crossed the centre line and collided head-on with a Nissan Terrano 4WD, driven by Caroline Graham.
Mr Amin, the front-seat passenger, received massive head injuries and died in hospital two days later. Two other passengers in Mr Ahmad's car were also injured in the accident.
Miss Graham and her two daughters who were also in the vehicle all had to be taken to hospital, and later said they had seen Mr Ahmad's car travel over the centre line towards them.
One of Mr Ahmad's passengers told police the group had been sightseeing on the morning of the accident, with Mr Ahmad doing all the driving. After lunch Mr Ahmad had picked apples for at least an hour.
A police investigation concluded Mr Ahmad had been tired and after losing concentration at an earlier bend in the road, he started to fall asleep behind the wheel before driving into the path of Miss Graham's vehicle.
Mr Dennehy agreed that the accident was caused by Mr Ahmad's fatigue.
Miss Graham was cleared of any blame in the accident, with Mr Dennehy saying her and her children were simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time".
Picker nodded off before fatal crash
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