John MacRae has been driving trucks for Mainfreight Transport Ltd for the past five years in what has been a truck-driving career spanning more than two decades.
Mr MacRae was heading home at the end of a shift on April 2 when he was involved in a head-on collision with a Thai national driving a rental car near Twizel.
He watched helpless as the approaching rental car veered off the road, at which point the driver appeared to over-correct the vehicle, sending it into a spin and into the path of Mr MacRae's truck.
"He hit the front passenger-side corner of the truck, spun around and hit the trailer.
"I steadied the truck so it wouldn't tip over and once it had stopped, I walked back to the rental car.
"I assumed the worst, and was relieved to find the driver alive, out of the vehicle and relatively unhurt," he said.
Mr MacRae and Twizel police who attended the incident found out the man driving the rental car had worked a full day in Thailand, boarded a long-haul flight to New Zealand, stepped off the plane into a rental car, and driven from Christchurch bound for Omarama.
He admitted to falling asleep at the wheel, losing control, and crashing into Mr MacRae's truck.
Mr MacRae said, as a commercial driver, checks and balances were in place to prevent driver fatigue, and he wanted rental car companies and insurance agents to take a more proactive approach in providing restrictions on drivers coming off long-haul international flights.
Last week he wrote to Minister of Transport Steven Joyce and National's Otago MP Jacqui Dean highlighting his concerns and detailing the accident.
"Car hire companies are aware of what flights are coming in because their customers are on them, so they know what time they're coming into the country and what time they left their origin.
"I think there should be some stand-down period for long-haul flight passengers from when they enter New Zealand to when they can get behind the wheel," he said.
Mr MacRae accepted such measures would be almost impossible to enforce, and recognised the problem of fatigued drivers extended beyond international tourists.
"I understand it's hard to police for the mere fact that you can't tell people not to drive.
"I just think there should be more awareness of the dangers, and if some measures can be put in place to reduce the risk it can't hurt," he said.
Driver fatigue
Results of incidents in which driver fatigue has been a factor in rural Otago (not including Dunedin), between 2004-08:
• 5 deaths.
• 40 serious injuries.
• 111 minor injuries.
• 27 non-injury crashes.
