Ferry company fined $380,000
Wellington’s cross harbour ferry company East by West has been fined $380,000 for an April 2017 grounding and speeding thousands of times in restricted areas.
The company’s lawyer had told a judge at the Wellington District Court that a fine of over $200,000 could put at risk the more than $4 million electric ferry being built for the Wellington run.
But Maritime NZ said the company had spent millions on the new boat, and changes to workplace safety law after the Pike River mine disaster were intended to make shareholders feel the effect of a steep penalty.
In the end the $380,000 total, out of a $2m possible maximum, Judge Chris Sygrove imposed fell between what Maritime New Zealand and the company wanted.
The company was charged after one of its ferries hit a submerged rock in Karaka Bay, on a Sunday morning trip on April 16, 2017. It had been going about 17 knots when the limit for the area was 5 knots (9 kilometres) because it was within 200 metres of shore.
One passenger was thrown from her seat but did not need first aid. The City Cat was damaged and was out of service for about two weeks.
Previously skipper Iain David Wilson was fined $1688 for speeding and grounding the ferry.
He pleaded guilty to one charge under the Maritime Transport Act of causing unnecessary danger to the 18 crew and passengers on board, and other harbour users by breaching four Maritime Rules.
The skipper did not have detailed navigational charts showing weed which indicated rocks about 70m from shore, did not keep proper lookout and repeatedly went too fast before the grounding.
East by West Company Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure so far as reasonably practicable the health and safety of workers and others exposing them to the risk of death or serious injury relating to the grounding, and failing to ensure so far as reasonably practicable the health and safety of workers and others for continuing speed breaches.
Maritime NZ said East by West could have monitored the ferries’ speed and position and if it had it would have seen the ferries travelling at above 7 knots within 200m of land thousands of times in the year before the grounding.
Even after the grounding, between May 15, 2017 and April 12, 2018, the ferries went above 7 knots within 200m of shore more than 3500 times. The company accepted that brought the ferries into areas used by others, including ocean swimmers, divers and kayakers.
The company had skippers sign a memorandum about not speeding but it failed to monitor the speed and course of the ferries, Maritime NZ said. The steps it needed to take were not expensive or time-consuming.
Maritime NZ’s lawyer, Dale La Hood, said the skippers had to run to a schedule and it was not until the schedule changed eight months after the grounding that the ferries started going slower close to shore.
Skippers took time to adjust, especially near the Thorndon terminal area where the ferries’ turning ability was affected at low speeds, East by West’s lawyer, Peter Dawson, said.
No-one was harmed in the grounding and the company had an exemplary safety record over more than 30 years carrying more than 4 million passengers.
Managing director Jeremy Ward was mortified by what had happened, and his co-operation with Maritime NZ went beyond what was required, Dawson said. The company had done what it could to ensure it didn’t happen again.
Contacted after the hearing, Ward said he would comment later.