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A grieving mother has spoken of her anguish after her son was killed - by a rubbish truck the boy's father was driving.
"He didn't even make it to 13," said Vicki Lee, of Thames, yesterday as she left the family home to collect the body of Sommers Charles Lee, 12.
Sommers was killed while riding on the back of the rubbish truck driven by his father Dallas Alfred Houia, 42. The truck, owned by contractor Streetsmart, was doing the Friday-afternoon Paeroa rubbish collection. Ms Lee said: "It was just a tragic, freak accident. I have to go and pick my boy up now." Houia could not speak about the tragedy.
Sommers, a student at Thames' Moanataiari School, is believed to have slipped while hoisting bags of rubbish into the Streetsmart truck. He was run over by a back wheel.
He was one of three young people helping - and a source said Houia had been warned twice not to allow children to ride the truck.
Glenn Brice, crash analyst at Waikato police, said charges were being considered. He said a Department of Labour workplace safety adviser told him a child as young as Lee should not have been working on the truck.
"I have not come across this sort of thing before... But it's one of those things you can't police."
Department of Labour regional manager Ona De Row confirmed the department was investigating.
Graeme Christian, owner of Streetsmart said the company had clear guidelines on working the rubbish trucks. "My heart and sympathy go out to this young man's family... The company has clear rules and regulations... and we will be conducting a full inquiry." But he would not say if the company had a policy on children working on the trucks.
But a Streetsmart source has told the Herald on Sunday Houia had been warned not to let Sommers work on the truck. "In the past two weeks the driver was told by two managers that the boy was not to work on the truck."
Houia was doing his usual round for Streetsmart contractors in Paeroa. Sommers and two teenagers, 14 and 16, were working between the trailer and the cab. Sommers was on the lower platform, holding on to the rail with one hand and passing rubbish bags to the other two.
In King St, Sommers picked up a rubbish bag and either let go of the handle or slipped off the truck. When he hit the ground he was run over by the back wheel. Two ambulances with at least three paramedics rushed to the scene, but could not save him.
A woman who picked Sommers off the ground was yesterday too traumatised to speak. But Anchor milkman David Ghezzi described the panic that descended upon the usually quiet street opposite the town's domain and playground.
"I heard a sort of bang and screaming. Then I saw a heavily pregnant woman running across the domain. Then the sirens started. There must have been 20-25 people who would have seen it."
Ghezzi drove by the scene two hours later - and Sommers' ashen-faced father was still pacing helplessly beside his truck.
A group of friends and whanau gathered outside the family's Thames home to share their grief. A convoy later left to pick up Sommers' body.
Kathy Ngamane, a member of the board of trustees, said Houia's family had been in Thames for generations and he would have a big support network.
Lance Strong, head of the Kiaido Ryu Martial Arts club, described Sommers as "a good kid" who had trained hard for more than three years at the Thames dojo. "He just went for his purple belt recently - he did a really, really good job.
"His mum was saying just the other night when she called, that he just absolutely loved his martial arts, so apparently they're going to put him in his gi - his uniform - for his funeral."
