‘ You let Zach down’ — NZDF to pay $ 288,000
Court rules after fatal dive at the Devonport Naval Base last year
The New Zealand Defence Force has been fined more than $ 288,000 for exposing six divers to risk of death or serious injury during a dive that claimed the life of Zachary Yarwood.
The fine was handed down in the Auckland District Court yesterday, after the fatal dive at the Devonport Naval Base in March last year.
The Navy able communications technician had became unresponsive during the dive and later died in hospital. He was just 23.
NZDF failed to ensure divers were effectively supervised during training and did not have the correct numbers of overseeing staff present, a court has found. It also failed to ensure that all divers taking part, including instructors, had valid Certificates of Competence for diving, the court heard.
In March 2019, the trainees were taking part in a course known as Able Diver Course — Mine Warfare.
The 25th marked the start of Endurance Week, where the aim was to test ability under controlled pressure and sustained fatigue.
That day, the trainees had already completed two dives, totalling more than six hours underwater, before starting the night- time dive.
Jackstay lines ran across the seabed to create two spaces either side of a pontoon where t wo overseeing staff stood.
“There should have been four supervisory staff present, there were only two,” Judge Eddie Paul said.
The divers were working in two groups of three, one on either side of the pontoon.
Two divers would hold each end of the snag line and pull it along as they moved up and down the jackstay lines. The third diver was roving, swimming along the snagline, freeing it if needed. Yarwood was the roving diver in his group.
Each diver’s position was marked by an attached surface float, made visible in the dark water by glow sticks.
About 90 minutes in, a float belonging to a diver in the other group got caught on a boat. All trainees were called to the surface.
However, when Yarwood’s teammates attempted to regroup before surfacing, the young man was found unresponsive on the seabed.
Yarwood later died in hospital of oxygen deprivation.
The WorkSafe investigation found the trainee divers were doing a gas switch trick — unknown to NZDF — as it allowed them to dive longer. It was a trick that exposed them to the risk of hypoxia, the court heard.
Later observations suggested Yarwood was doing this trick during the dive, the court heard.
While the Defence Force’s failings gave rise to risk, they did not cause Yarwood’s death in that they were not a “substantial or operative cause” of him becoming hypoxic, according to court documents.
WorkSafe prosecutor Ben Finn said NZDF had been carrying out an inherently high- risk activity, involving many trainees that occurred multiple times that day.
NZDF had not been following its own specific health and safety guidance, he said. “It should be held accountable for cutting corners in such a high- risk area as this.”
Defence lawyer Samantha Turner said NZDF was very open about its remorse for what had occurred and had pleaded guilty early. They were not “cavalier in their approach to training” or in any way trying to cut corners, the risks were known in a way that had become normalised.
Judge Paul fined NZDF $ 288,750 and ordered them to pay court costs of $ 2629.
Yarwood’s fiancee, Emily Parr, told the court she had lost her best friend. “My worst fear was losing Zach, he knew this and reassured me he would be okay.”
She recalled asking him what would happen if he ever lost consciousness during a dive and he had replied he would be pulled to the top by others. “Absolutely no one was there for Zach that night.
“The Navy have let me down . . . but more importantly, you let Zach down.”
Yarwood’s mother, Liz, said she was incredibly angry at the Navy and WorkSafe for not laying a higher charge.
She was proud when Yarwood joined the Navy. Just 17, the promising young man had pretty much every pathway open to him.
“I have recurring dreams of what happened that night, him lying there on the bottom of the seabed.”
How devastating that he was left to die while simply training, she said.