Reckless skipper pays heavy price
Todd Bawden has paid a heavy price for a crash in which he ploughed his boat on to rocks off Cooks Beach in darkness.
Not only has he paid $128,000 to his seriously injured friends but he’s lost the love of a pastime he grew up with.
Bawden was at the helm on January 28, 2017, as the four men headed back to Cooks Beach around 10pm after a couple of hours of fishing.
Disoriented in the dark, Bawden – the skipper – didn’t realise how close he was to shore.
His 7-metre, hard-top recreational vessel hit Lion Rock at speed and came to a complete stop on top of the rocks.
The smash left some on board with life-altering injuries and Maritime New Zealand prosecuted Bawden as a result.
As well as the reparation of $128,300, Bawden was fined $6750 when he appeared for sentence in Hamilton District Court on Monday.
Bawden escaped the crash without serious physical injuries, defence lawyer Philip Morgan QC said, but the consequences weighed heavily.
‘‘This man knows very well what he did, and what he has done is that he’s injured his friends terribly,’’ he said.
Bawden, who is self-employed, wanted to compensate his friends and had made arrangements to pay reparation.
The men became friends through working in construction, the court heard, and remain friends after the crash.
One of the men received what Judge Kim Saunders described as harrowing injuries, including a ruptured liver and head injuries that led to tearing on his scalp.
He spent two months in hospital – visited by Bawden – he underwent more than seven surgeries, and he doesn’t know if he will be able to return to work.
‘‘There were occasions where he believed he was going to die,’’ Saunders said.
She ordered Bawden to pay him $94,000 in reparation for emotional harm and financial loss.
Another man was left with a permanent limp – a particular impediment given his work as a professional motorcycle racer – and will receive $26,300.
The third man couldn’t work for two weeks after the accident, and will receive $8000.
One of the men was in court with Bawden, another couldn’t be because of an appointment, and the third lives overseas.
Bawden had spent his holidays on New Zealand waterways since age 12, Morgan said.
Now, age 49, he isn’t going to buy another boat because it would make him ‘‘relive this dreadful accident’’.
‘‘He knows exactly that he drank, he drove the boat too fast, he failed to keep a proper lookout, he was disoriented by the darkness.’’
As well as speeding in the dark, Bawden had consumed alcohol and wasn’t using navigational aids, prosecutor Sam Lowery said.
That was highly cavalier conduct in Maritime New Zealand’s view.
The crash that followed was the most serious kind of non-fatal maritime incident that could be prosecuted under the Maritime Transport Act.
‘‘Had a passenger died we realistically would have been looking at a manslaughter prosecution,’’ Lowery said.
On the day of the accident, the men had a few drinks in the afternoon before they went fishing and Bawden had two more beers out on the water.
However, alcohol wasn’t found to be a significant contributing factor.
It was a calm night but a dark one with no visible moon, making it near impossible to see what was ahead.
Bawden took the helm because his friends had been heading in the wrong direction, toward Hahei, Morgan said.
He didn’t recall hearing warnings that he was too close to shore, or his friend offering to take the wheel.
But he accepted his part in ‘‘dangerous and foolish activity’’ such as drinking alcohol before going fishing, heading home at speed in the dark, and not realising he could be disoriented by patches of light ahead on the beach.
Bawden’s high speed could be explained by the fact he didn’t know how near the shore was, Saunders said.
‘‘You really did not know where you were and ought to have taken more care,’’ she said.
‘‘As the skipper, you were responsible for [your passengers’] safety.’’
Saunders took a starting point of $9000 for the fine but gave a 25 per cent discount for Bawden’s guilty plea, reducing it to $6750.