Tourist Boat Operator Fined for Passenger Injury
A New Zealand passenger vessel operator and its director have been fined more than $93,000 after a 60-year-old passenger suffered a broken back on the company’s high-speed tourist excursion boat near Cape Brett, New Zealand.
In October 2014, Raewyn Russell was seated in the front row as a passenger on the high-speed tourist excursions vessel Mack Attack, a catamaran capable of speeds of up to 100 km/hr. When the boat hit a large wave at speed and landed heavily, Russell was thrown forward and on landing back in her seat heard a crack in her back. At the hospital, Russell was found to have a fracture in her eleventh thoracic vertebrae.
Seafort Holdings Limited and its sole director and shareholder, Richard John Prentice, who was also the master of the Mack Attack during the accident, were sentenced in Auckland District Court to pay fines and reparations totaling more than $93,000. Seafort and Prentice are to pay $32,630 in reparation to Russell; Seafort has been fined $55,000 and Prentice has been fined $5,500.
Judge C.J. Field, who released his sentencing decision on Thursday, found Seafort Holdings and Prentice had not advised the passengers of the known, heightened risk of back injuries, even more so for older people, sitting at the front of high speed passenger vessels. “This injury is a permanent disability which has resulted in Mrs. Russell giving up her career,” Judge Field said.
Judge Field said Seafort Holdings and Prentice “were in a position to ensure that Mrs. Russell was advised of the increased risk at the front of the vessel and to have seated [passengers] appropriately. Mrs. Russell did not have the opportunity to make her own informed choice about where to sit based on [her] knowledge of [her] physiology and [her] appetite for risk.”
Maritime NZ has published safety guidelines for commercial high speed/thrill ride vessel experiences, which detail operators’ obligations.
Maritime NZ investigated and prosecuted Seafort Holdings and Prentice. They pleaded not guilty, a trial began in September last year, and Judge Field found them guilty last month of one charge each under the Maritime Transport Act that they “omitted to do an act that caused unnecessary danger or risk to any other person.”
Maritime NZ Northern Regional Manager, Neil Rowarth, said the convictions send an important message to masters and owners of passenger vessels: “You have responsibility for your passengers’ safety.”
“You must take practical steps to help keep your passengers safe,” Rowarth said.