Fullers made to pay $155k after ferry hit wharf

Passenger still suffers effects of head injury after fall down stairs

New Zealand’s largest public ferry operator has been ordered to pay $155,000 in reparations and fines after a prosecution involving one of its catamarans.

It comes after the Fullers Group was taken to court by Maritime New Zealand for a second time after the Kea again collided with Devonport’s Victoria Wharf in 2017. It was also fined after a 2015 crash.

On November 9, 2017, the Kea was sailing from the CBD to Devonport with more than 50 passengers when it veered to starboard and hit the pier.

A woman was thrown from the top of a stairwell to the deck, suffering head trauma. She has ongoing effects from the injury and has been unable to return to work.

The company pleaded guilty in July last year to failing to comply with a duty that exposed an individual to risk of death or serious injury under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The charge carried a maximum penalty of a $1.5 million fine.

After reserving her decision on a sentence after a hearing in December, Judge Nicola Mathers yesterday ordered a series of payments and fines, including a first for a maritime case in New Zealand.

Fullers was ordered to pay $68,336 in reparations to two of the four injured passengers, one of whom had serious head injuries. The company was also fined $86,159, with court costs of $19,765.

And in a maritime-case first, the judge made a work health and safety project order: Fullers must lead work for its own crews and other operators to improve safety. The project should cost Fullers about $300,750.

Fullers had sought the project order and Maritime NZ agreed one was appropriate. It requires Fullers to engage with various industry participants and train 150 to 200 people across the sector to facilitate health and safety learning teams.

The teams will work through business practices, near-misses, and accidents to change how work is done so that it is safer.

Fullers must also develop a competency framework for the learning teams and do a case study on their use in the maritime industry. It must make the resources it develops, and the case study, available for free.

In a statement yesterday, Maritime NZ Northern Region compliance manager Neil Rowarth said project orders imposed obligations on an offender under the Health and Safety at Work Act to carry out a project to improve work health and safety.

“There is a strong message here that maritime operators, particularly those transporting members of the public, have a significant responsibility for public safety,” Rowarth said.

“They must have good training in place for their crew and other staff, and must have ways of working that help keep people safe. If they do not, then they will be held to account.

“Work health and safety project orders are a new tool that courts can use to hold operators to account . . .”

If a project order is not carried out as directed, the company can be fined up to $250,000. The court may also revisit the sentence.

Fullers chief executive Mike Horne had earlier told the Herald safety was

its “top priority, and a core value across our operation”.

The 2017 crash involved failure to provide adequate off-service training for the ferry’s trainee master and not having sufficient warning signs and advice for passengers during berthing. But Fullers’ legal team said in court that even with more training and warnings, it “could not have avoided the hazard entirely”.

Fullers is decommissioning the Kea, which carried 1.8 million passengers in 2017.