Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar held an inquest into the deaths of Stewart Hetaraka Smith (20), of Mataura, and Lavenia Setefano (19), of Gore.
They were part of a shearing gang, working for Dion Morrell, heading to the Ida Valley for work on September 18, 2008, when the van left the road and rolled, 4km east of Poolburn. The pair, who were not wearing seat belts, were thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.
After hearing from six witnesses, Mr Crerar reserved his finding. However, "the most significant contributing factor" in the deaths was that seat belts were not worn by Ms Setefano and Mr Smith, he said.
The van driver, Pagan Rimene, of Alexandra, admitted charges arising from the accident, of careless driving causing injury and careless driving causing death. In June last year she was sentenced to 300 hours' community work, ordered to pay $7000 in emotional harm reparation and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
Mr Crerar said it was unusual for an inquest to follow a prosecution after a fatality. After the inquest, he said it was the first such case he had handled since he became coroner in July 2007.
"There were some safety issues that could not be addressed in the district court proceeding."
Generally, a coroner accepted the evidence given in a district court proceeding and discontinued the inquest.
The chairman of the New Zealand shearing industry health and safety committee, Peter Taylor, of Palmerston North, gave evidence of a draft set of travel guidelines developed for the industry. Although the guidelines were under way before the fatality, the accident "gave us a push-along", he said.
"Road conditions, the time of travel and the physical nature of the work make travel the most likely activity that will cause serious harm in the wool harvesting industry," Mr Taylor said.
The guidelines would be phased in by the end of this year.
People working in the agricultural sector, as a whole, were probably a bit "gung-ho" when it came to laws and rules, Mr Taylor said.
The shearing contractor, Mr Morrell, said procedures had been tightened since the accident. Drivers of company vehicles had to have their full licences. Shearing-gang staff not wearing seat belts had always been an issue and he had asked police to ticket any of his staff who failed to wear seat belts.
With several gangs working at once, it was hard to supervise each group, he said.
"Why don't shearers wear seat belts? In general, it seems they have an aversion to seat belts," Mr Crerar said.
Mr Morrell said perhaps the staff were too "relaxed" in their attitudes to such things. He was also guilty of not always wearing his seat belt.
A serious crash investigator, Senior Constable Alastair Crosland, said the vehicle had rolled several times, but the passenger part of the van had stayed largely intact. If the passengers had been wearing seat belts, and were restrained, they would have been less likely to have been injured.
Senior Constable Fred Aplin, of Omakau, said he had issued infringement notices to "quite a lot" of shearing-gang staff for not wearing seat belts.
