Coffs Harbour worker dies five days after ute struck him at service station

A 36-year-old service station worker has died five days after he was struck and dragged beneath a ute while checking underground fuel-tank levels in Coffs Harbour. He died at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle on Sunday, October 25. NSW Police confirmed his death the following day. ¹

He had been crouching near the north-western side of the United service station forecourt on Harbour Drive when he was hit on October 20, according to the police account and contemporaneous reporting. The task that put him there was part of his work. Precisely how the vehicle came to strike him remains under investigation. ^{1 4}

Emergency services were called at about 7pm to reports of a man trapped beneath a ute at the station on the New South Wales north coast. That is the reported time of the emergency call, not an independently established time of impact. North Coast Times described the vehicle as a black Mazda dual-cab ute. ⁴

Members of the public gave the worker first aid while he was still underneath the vehicle. Police, NSW Ambulance, Fire and Rescue NSW and the State Emergency Service attended. Emergency crews worked for about half an hour to free him, with access to the injured man a major difficulty. ^{1 4}

Paramedics treated him before he was taken to Coffs Harbour Base Hospital in a critical condition. He was then flown to John Hunter Hospital for further treatment. He died there five days after the collision. The reporting reviewed for this account does not identify him by name. ¹

The alleged driver, Jessica Mae Breen, 44, had already been charged before the worker died. She faces allegations of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and breach of bail. ABC News reported on October 26 that no additional charges had been laid at that stage. His death is the newly confirmed development; it is not evidence that the charge has been changed. ¹

The bail-breach allegation relates to separate offences. It should not be read as an additional account of how this collision happened. Both allegations await court proceedings and are not findings of guilt. The distinction matters: the worker’s death and the allegations currently before the court are separate parts of the chronology. ¹

The initial police account, reproduced by Mirage News, said the woman underwent mandatory testing before being taken to Coffs Harbour Police Station and charged. The charges had been reported by the morning of October 21. The available accounts do not establish whether they were laid on October 20 or October 21. ¹¹

Her bail position also changed. North Coast Times reported on October 21 that she had been refused bail pending an appearance in Bail Division Court 1 that day. ABC’s later account says she was granted bail on October 21. The earlier refusal is therefore not her latest reported bail status. ^{4 1}

Breen’s next reported appearance is at Coffs Harbour Local Court on Wednesday, October 28. No hearing time has been established in the available reporting. Any subsequent charging decision, and the outcome of the proceedings, remain unresolved. ¹

Police’s preliminary assessment was that the incident was not targeted. Speaking on October 21, Acting Inspector Amanda Crouch said the woman had attended the station to collect fuel and was leaving the forecourt when the collision happened. Crouch said there had been no previous interaction between the driver and the worker: “They are not known to each other.” ¹

That assessment addresses one question—whether the worker was deliberately targeted—but it does not explain the collision’s mechanics or settle responsibility. It was an initial account given while investigators were still examining the circumstances, not a completed reconstruction of what happened.

The Crash Investigation Unit and SafeWork are investigating. The two inquiries reflect the circumstances of the fatal injury: a vehicle struck a person on a forecourt, and that person was an employee carrying out a service-station task. Neither inquiry’s final findings have been established. ¹

Police will also prepare a report for the coroner. That is a further investigative step, not an announced coronial conclusion or a confirmed inquest date. The next dated development is the October 28 court return; the explanation of how a worker checking fuel levels came to be trapped beneath a departing vehicle is still to come. ¹