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Warwick Smith/Stuff
Sharon Harris speaks about her son Floyd Richard Harris, who died in a crash in 2019, during a coronial inquest into the crash. She displays a photo of Floyd.
A young man who died in a car crash, which also killed the passenger, had felt pressured by his employer to drive between towns despite being on his learner driver’s licence.
Floyd Richard Harris, 21, and Jake Henry Ginders, 23, were employees of recruitment agency AWF who died in a crash when driving to work on January 16, 2019.
Harris was driving them 50km from Palmerston North to work at the Oringi business park, south of Dannevirke. Both men had learner licences. A learner licence holder cannot drive without a supervisor who has had their full licence for at least two years.
The road was wet and Harris lost control of the vehicle when cornering, sliding into the opposite lane and hit a ute going the other way. Both men died instantly from multiple injuries. The driver of the other vehicle was unhurt.
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Harris’ mother Sharon gave evidence at the coronial inquest into the crash in Palmerston North on Wednesday.
She said Harris had felt pressured to drive himself and others to work for fear of losing his job. Harris had autism and only understood things in black and white, she said.
Sharon questioned why an assignment so far out of Palmerston North had been given to her son when he didn’t have the appropriate licence and there was no public transport.
She said AWF had organised the carpooling and Harris had been asked to drive himself and others to Oringi knowing he had a learner licence.
When Harris told his employer he didn’t want to drive because others didn’t want to pay for petrol, an AWF staff member offered to meet him at a petrol station to pay for fuel, she said.
“This is a tragic event and totally preventable. My son should never have been put in the situation in the first place.
“If it wasn’t for the instruction to give Jake, and previously others, a ride, these young men would still be alive. We wouldn’t have to be living this constant nightmare.
“AWF holds most of the blame here as they held all the positions of power. I know that Floyd could have said no. However, with his [autism] this was never going to happen. He didn’t have the skills to say no.”
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Photos of Jake Henry Ginders, left, as a boy and Floyd Richard Harris, who died in a crash in 2019, displayed at the coronial inquest.
Harris, who had been driving on his grandfather’s farm since he was young, had been hoping to get his restricted licence before his next birthday.
Sharon said because of Harris’ autism he couldn’t understand other ways of dealing with things.
One of the side effects of Harris’ medication was difficulty sleeping and his mother said he was averaging four hours’ sleep a night due to the demand of picking up other workers.
Donna Lynch was one of the general managers for AWF and oversaw the response to the crash.
The two men’s licence information was on file, but Lynch said no-one allocating work would have known about the licence status and wouldn’t have organised Harris to drive others if they did.
“It was an oversight with tragic consequences.”
Lynch said any worker could refuse any job without repercussions and the company had procedures in place to manage fatigue.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
The inquest is before coroner Janet Anderson.
The carpooling arrangement was done informally by the company to help people get to work.
The company now has procedures in place to prevent a repeat of the incident, including licence checks.
AWF has a system for staff to speak up or report anything.
Ginders’ father Mark said he had read Ginders’ induction form, which said workers must have the appropriate licence, so he felt the company had been negligent.
“No-one should die due to an employer’s negligence.”
Ginders’ brother Luther had also worked for AWF and said when he had travelled to jobs in other employees’ vehicles he was never told what licence people had.
Luther said Ginders had told him he was uncomfortable about travelling with Harris, which he had told his manager about.
Harris and Ginders had worked together but were not friends.
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