A man fell asleep while driving before a fatal accident, killing himself and a friend

A Christchurch man who had not slept for up to 24 hours was in the same condition as someone with more than double the legal alcohol limit when he collided head-on with a truck, killing himself and his friend. Sam Sherwood reports.

Kamalpreet Singh had been awake for up to 19 hours when he got behind the wheel and drove 200 kilometers during the night.

Singh had worked until 12:30 a.m. on March 28, 2017, before picking up his friend’s sister and 7-year-old son at the airport to avoid them having to take a taxi, which would cost around $ 600. Also in the car was Singh’s friend, Lovepreet Singh.

The couple was in Springs Junction for a short time, drinking about half a coffee before deciding to return home. Kamalpreet Singh, who had been awake for up to 24 hours, was supposed to start work at 2 p.m.

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At 8:10 a.m., the 23-year-old was asleep when his white Nissan Sunny crossed the center line and hit the path of a truck on State Highway 7 near Culverden, killing him and his friend instantly.

Three years later, a coroner ruled that driver fatigue was the cause of the accident and asked the New Zealand Transportation Agency (NZTA) to continue educating people about the risks of driver fatigue.

Night trip to help a friend

Kamalpreet Singh, who moved to New Zealand from India about 15 months before his death, met 19-year-old Lovepreet Singh on the teenager’s first day of work at City Cleaning Services in Christchurch. The men, who were both of Sikh faith, immediately joined in.

At around 8 p.m. on March 27, Kamalpreet Singh received a call from his friend Kamaljit Pandher, who lived in Springs Junction, a two-and-a-half hour drive north of the city.

Pandher asked if Singh could pick up his sister, Sandeep Kaur, at the Christchurch airport, so that he wouldn’t have to take a taxi.

Singh, who was working until 12:30 a.m. M., He said he could pick up Kaur after work. He and his friend arrived at the airport around 2 am.

He was pulled over by police about 10 minutes later on Bealey Ave for speeding. They gave him a breath test and he passed.

Police said he obeyed and apologized and was released with a warning. No one in the car mentioned anything about their travel plans.

The group then went to a nearby gas station before going to an Indian cafe. They left the cafe around 3 am.

Kaur and her son slept most of the trip in the back of the car. Kaur told police he woke up around 5 am near Culverden, and the men were “joking and both very active.”

He fell asleep again and woke up when they reached Springs Junction around 6.30am. I believed that Kamalpreet Singh drove most of the way.

“I would describe Kamalpreet’s driving as fast vehicles and sometimes overtaking,” he told police.

Pandher met the group at the local cafe. He offered food to the Singhs, but they said they had already eaten. She said she didn’t seem tired. Kamalpreet Singh joked with her about how far Springs Junction was from Christchurch, while Lovepreet Singh said it was her first “vacation” since arriving in Christchurch six months earlier.

Pandher made them coffees, but they drank only half before Kamalpreet Singh said he should start work again at 2 p.m. The couple left Springs Junction around 6.40 a.m.

Fatal collision when returning home

Pandher asked them to text him when they got home. Kamalpreet Singh texted him at 7.44am to say they were about 100 kilometers apart. He also made a short phone call at 7.49am.

At 8:10 a.m., the couple were traveling down Mouse Point Rd, about 3 miles north of Culverden. His car was the last in a row of three or four vehicles traveling south. Limited visibility of thick fog to about 50 meters.

A loaded truck and a tow unit were traveling north in the opposite lane. The truck was driven by experienced truck driver Edwin Aranui, moving pallets of flour from Christchurch to Auckland.

After the line of cars passed Aranui’s truck, he saw a white car about 20-30 m behind the car in front of him. The white car pulled into the lane of his truck “like it was exiting to pass or something.”

The car, which did not indicate, was traveling at about 95 km / h.

Aranui moved his truck to the left, but the car kept moving toward the painted fog line to the left of his northbound lane.

Then he “went through the hole”, veering to the right.

“I saw the passenger sit in the car like [he] I woke up when the car was about 10 meters from me. “

Both men died at the scene. Aranui was shocked but unharmed.

Major Accident Unit Senior Sheriff JB McIntyre said it was “more than likely” that both men had fallen asleep.

There was no evidence of pre-impact braking by the Nissan, and none of the vehicles involved were found to have mechanical faults.

McIntyre’s report identified five characteristics that a crash was related to fatigue, including a car running off the road or crossing the center line, a driver not attempting to brake or swerve to avoid the collision, and the sleeping passenger.

Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale said it was unclear when Kamalpreet Singh last slept.

“There is a strong possibility that at 8 am on March 28, he would have been awake and working or driving since the beginning of March 27, about 24 hours earlier.”

The Director of the Sleep Clinic, Dr. Alex Bartle, said Things Studies showed that 24 hours without sleep was the equivalent of being twice the legal limit for alcohol.

These drivers have slower reaction times and are more likely to fall asleep.

“Often when we drive on a highway, at 4 or 5 in the morning, the roads are quite clear, especially when going out into the field. [and] you will lose focus briefly.

“You won’t even know you’re doing it … and that’s the danger, we think we’re fine, but we’re actually moving in and out of consciousness.”

A passenger who falls asleep next to the driver can also have an impact, Bartle said.

“Their regular, slow, deep breathing that they take when they fall asleep seems to resonate with the driver. So if the passenger is falling asleep, the driver is more likely to feel a little more sleepy as well. “

Bartle recommended that people take a break every two to three hours they drive. He said a 1- to 20-minute nap was “fantastically restorative” and could have saved both men’s lives.

“I’m sure most of the time he would get away with it, the problem is that we got away with it so we think it’s okay.

“He was trying to please people by being a good citizen, but he was actually putting himself and everyone else in danger.”

Borrowdale said driver fatigue is a major contributing cause of road deaths and injuries in New Zealand. In 2019, there were 17 fatal crashes (6 percent of all fatal crashes) and 85 seriously injured crashes (4 percent of all seriously injured crashes) where driver fatigue was identified as a contributing factor, compared to 28 deaths and 139 serious injuries. in 2018. In 2006 there were 44 deaths.

NZTA suspended its campaign on driver fatigue in 2018, saying the work would continue through a “targeted” educational approach rather than widespread publicity.

Borrowdale hoped the NZTA would continue to educate people on the risks of driver fatigue and not allow past efforts to “fade away.”

NZTA’s senior manager for road safety, Fabian Marsh, said the agency changed its focus to focus on higher-risk groups like shift workers and their employers to help them recognize signs of fatigue.

Speed ​​and fatigue can also be a deadly combination. The faster you drive, the less time you have to react to the unexpected, and when you are tired, fatigue slows down your reactions, ”said Marsh.