‘The boat was flung into the air’
Police have released the name of the man who died following a boating accident in the Bay of Plenty on the weekend. He was Joebert Dumangon, 50, of Te Puke.
He was one of two men on board a boat trying to cross the Bay of Plenty’s most dangerous bar in ‘‘very bad’’ conditions on Saturday. The boat was flung up into the air and capsized, according to the regional harbour master.
Emergency services were called to the Kaituna River near Ford Rd, Paengaroa, about 11.45am on Saturday, a police spokeswoman said.
One person made it to shore and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
Dumangon was pulled from the water by rescuers and died a short time later.
Bay of Plenty regional harbourmaster Jon Jon Peters said he had reviewed live camera footage from the Kaituna Cut – the Bay of Plenty’s most dangerous bar – and the conditions at the time of the incident were ‘‘very bad’’.
‘‘The boat was actually flung up into the air and came down, capsized,’’ Peters said.
He said he understands the two men on board the boat were also not wearing life jackets.
‘‘This is a really sad incident, our thoughts are with the bereaved family and local community. It highlights the need to always wear life jackets and check the weather conditions.’’
Maketu Coastguard’s Shane Beech was one of those called out to the incident, after getting a call from the police saying that a boat had overturned on the Kaituna Cut bar and two people were in the water.
‘‘We navigated the bar, we soon came across the overturned hull, it was roughly about 200 metres offshore in the wave break itself,’’ Beech said.
‘‘One person was clinging to the hull, but we couldn’t sight the second person.’’
He said there was probably about a 1.5m wave break on the bar at the time, with an outgoing tide.
Beech said the Coastguard vessel couldn’t get too close to the overturned boat because of the wave break and the depth of water, ‘‘but we sort of shadowed it in until basically it washed up on shore’’.
He said by that point they could see one person was being helped on shore by members of the public, and shortly after more help arrived from the Coastguard, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Police.
‘‘They found the second person on shore, they all helped with first aid and CPR, but unfortunately it wasn’t successful.’’
Beech said he wanted to emphasise the importance of people wearing life jackets while crossing bars.
‘‘There were life jackets there, but they weren’t wearing them unfortunately,’’ he said.
‘‘We do get quite a few incidents on the bar – boat roll-overs, boats hitting sandbars, that sort of thing. But this is definitely the first fatality for many years.’’
Harbourmaster Peters said people need to be aware of the dangers involved with bar crossings, even if they regularly cross a bar and feel confident doing so.
‘‘Complacency is the biggest killer,’’ he said.
The Kaituna Cut live bar camera is available to members of the public and can be viewed via the Bay of Plenty Regional Council website.
Meanwhile, the police have thanked members of the public who offered their assistance at the scene. Anyone who witnessed the event and has not yet spoken to police was asked to contact them via 105.