init.d script cannot access alsa audio

I've written a simple init.d script to start an hardware monitor script. It works fine except it cannot access the alsa audio service:

#! /bin/sh

SCRIPT_PATH="/d/SharedPrograms/hwleds.py"

case $1 in
    start)
        say "starting service hwleds..."
        python $SCRIPT_PATH &
        exit $?
        ;;
    stop)
        pkill -f "python $SCRIPT_PATH"
        exit $?
        ;;
    restart)
        $0 stop
        sleep 1
        $0 start
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
        exit 1
esac

exit 1

The error i get from both the say command and the python script is:

audio_open_alsa: failed to open audio device default. Operation not permitted

edit: The python script can access alsa if it is started normally by the root user via an interactive shell, it only fails if it is started as a service during boot or via service hwleds start.

My actual /root/.asoundrc:

defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 3

ctl.equal {
  type equal;
}

pcm.plugequal {
  type equal;
  # Modify the line below if you don't
  # want to use sound card 0.
  slave.pcm "plughw:0,3";
  # or if you want to use with multiple applications output to dmix
  # slave.pcm "plug:dmix"
}

#pcm.equal {
  # Or if you want the equalizer to be your
  # default soundcard uncomment the following
  # line and comment the above line.
 pcm.!default {
  type plug;
  slave.pcm plugequal;
}