Darryl James Andrews: Farmhand jailed for two years over fatal seeder crash that killed Mark Gardner in Yuna

A Mid West farmhand has been jailed for more than two years for setting off a deadly chain of events that killed a cement truck driver. Father-of-six Darryl James Andrews, 53 was sentenced in Geraldton District Court on Monday for dangerous driving causing the death of 51-year-old father-of-two Mark Gardner before sunrise on Chapman Valley Road in Yuna on April 28, 2022. He pleaded guilty in June this year, a week before his trial was due to start. Judge Genevieve Cleary described it as a “grave error of judgement” when Andrews decided to move a seeder from one paddock to another on an unsealed road. His employer had instructed him to do so the night before, but told him to call him first so he could escort him in a pilot vehicle. Andrews tried calling his boss, but did not have mobile phone reception. The court was told Andrews could have tried to see if he was in range back at his ute 1.5km away, but decided to proceed with the job alone. Andrews’ intention, the court heard, was to drive the tractor towing a seeder 100m to the closest access gate on an unsealed road, but he accidentally missed the gate, and then chose to proceed onto Chapman Valley Road — a straight sealed section of a single carriageway with a 110km/h limit and no street lights — to the next closest gate 800m away. The court was told Andrews tried calling his employer again and put out a warning call on the two-way radio, but as he told police after the accident he felt “snookered” because he couldn’t turn around on the unsealed road and decided to keep going. At the same time, around 5.25am, Mr Gardner and a young female colleague were travelling north on Chapman Valley Road in the dark. Andrews saw the truck approaching and pulled over, tried the two-way again to give an oversized warning but believed the seeder box and bar was contained to his lane. Tragically, the seeder bar — which was unlit unlike the illuminated tractor and seeder box — was protruding up to 1.45m into the northbound lane and ploughed into the driver’s cabin of Mr Gardner’s cement truck. Mr Gardner died at the scene from “catastrophic injuries”, while his passenger was traumatised but uninjured. Mr Gardner wife Julie was in tears as she read out a harrowing victim impact statement in court on Monday, standing just metres from the man responsible for her husband’s death who she said she would “never ever forgive”. She said her whole world “shattered into a million pieces” when her husband was taken from her, and her family’s lives were left “in total ruin” due to someone’s negligence. “I had to look (my two sons) in the eye and tell them their dad died, it’s the hardest thing I have ever had to do,” Mrs Gardner said. “It was soul-destroying . . . telling them they can never see their dad again.” Mrs Gardner said she had “so much hate” in her heart when it was not even part of her vocabulary before, adding her mental health had been further impacted by the court case dragging on for two-and-a-half years. Defence lawyer Gerald Yin said Andrews did everything he could once he knew the truck was coming. “He believed he pulled off with sufficient distance,” he said. “He misjudged the situation. He went out that morning never intending to hurt anyone. He went out intending to do what he has done his entire life — a hard day’s work.” Mr Yin said a jail term was appropriate but argued the term should be suspended. State prosecutor Leslie Gabriel said imprisonment should be served immediately as Andrews had displayed an intentional lack of care and disregard for the life and safety of other road users. Judge Cleary found Andrews had not complied with any of the road rules involving transportation of this kind of farming equipment, namely having a permit, a pilot vehicle, oversized warning signs, amber lights and flags. “You knew you should have at least had a pilot vehicle with you,” she told Andrews. “You deliberately took a risk that set off a chain of consequences that led to a significant tragedy. The risk you took was really for nothing — to get a seeder from one paddock to the next.” Judge Cleary said Mr Gardner’s death was “completely avoidable and unnecessary”, but accepted Andrews genuinely believed at the time he was visible to other vehicles. However, none of his attempts to avert disaster were good enough, she concluded. “It wasn’t the manner of your driving that was dangerous, it was the fact you were driving at all,” she said. Judge Cleary found Andrews was genuinely remorseful despite his late guilty plea, did not try to shift blame on to anyone else, was of previous good character and was at low risk of reoffending. She said an immediate jail term was the only appropriate option, and sentenced Andrews to a term of two years and one month. He will be eligible for parole after serving one year and two weeks behind bars. The maximum penalty for this offence is 10 years. Andrews’ driver’s licence was disqualified for three years.