Truckie dies just hours after getting first payslip

Peter O'Toole

A Coromandel farmer thought the driver of a concrete truck was returning his friendly wave on Wednesday morning. But it appears the driver may have been gesturing in distress after suffering a heart attack.

The truck driver, Peter John O'Toole, 52, had recently shifted to Whitianga from Invercargill to help to care for his ailing 83-year-old father, and had been in his new job for only two weeks.

He received his first payslip as a driver for Whitianga and MB Ready Mix on Wednesday morning; a few hours later he was dead.

One of his three sisters, Liz Schubert, of Auckland, said Mr O'Toole, who was divorced, was survived by three adult daughters and a son.

"The Coromandel's always been central to Peter's life, and that's why he moved back here, as well as to be around family," Mrs Schubert told the Herald.

For the past few months Mr O'Toole had been living with his father Frank, who was recovering from hip surgery.

Mrs Schubert described her brother as "larger than life and really popular with his kids, nieces and nephews." He had loved the outdoors and was keen on tae kwon do.

The former motor mechanic was a hard worker and his death shock all who knew him, she said.

Mr O'Toole's boss, Ready Mix Concrete manager Rex Dew, said: "He left here in the morning happy as Larry, and now he's dead.

"We were shocked.

"We got the phone call saying, 'One of your trucks has flipped.' "We didn't know who it was."

Mr Dew said he had spoken to everyone at the scene of the accident, which happened at Te Rerenga, about 45km northwest of Whitianga on the Whangapoua Harbour.

A farmer had waved to the truck driver just before watching the truck gradually swerve from the road into a shallow ditch, flipping on to its side as it came to rest.

It was estimated to have been travelling at 60km/h to 70km/h.

Mr O'Toole was pulled from the truck by local people. CPR was used to try to revive him, and that was continued by emergency services staff when they arrived.

Although the autopsy results are not known and an inquest will decide the cause of death, one possibility is that Mr O'Toole suffered a heart attack.

It is understood that Mr O'Toole's father had told police that his son recently complained of chest pains.

Sergeant Jim Corbett, of the police strategic traffic unit, said Mr O'Toole's hat flew out the window of the truck's cab just before the accident.

Whether he was distracted by that or was waving back at the farmer he was passing was not known.

It was possible Mr O'Toole had been flagging his distress over a medical condition, Mr Corbett said.

Speed had not been a factor, although the weight of the laden concrete truck may have made it hard to control once it began sliding.

The truck was an old one, Mr Corbett said, and there was no requirement for a seatbelt to be fitted.