£8k fine after girl loses leg in Loch Ness cruise horror
Accident with mooring rope followed ‘serious error of judgment’
A LOCH NESS cruise firm and one of its former skippers have been fined a total of £8,000 after a crew member lost part of her leg following an accident.
Aurelia Thabart was working on the 65-year-old Jacobite Queen in June 2012 when her foot became entangled in a rope.
The French woman, now 29, had to have the lower part of her leg amputated and was in hospital for a month.
She later told how she felt her injury had ‘taken away part of her femininity’.
The accident happened while the Jacobite Queen was negotiating its way through the Dochgarroch Locks on the Caledonian Canal. Miss Thabart was taken to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.
At Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, former skipper Andrew Lach, 47, was fined £2,000 after admitting failing to ensure the mooring ropes were released before moving his vessel forward.
Jacobite Cruises admitted a health and safety breach by not ensuring an appropriate means of communication was available between master and crew on the day of the incident. It was fined £6,000.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood said: ‘I am not attempting to put a value on this terrible accident. My job is to assess the culpability of Mr Lach and the company.’
Lach’s counsel, advocate Barry Smith said: ‘My client accepts he made a serious error of judgment. It has been in his mind every day since…
‘He too has been badly affected by this. He left the company in 2014, now works as a bar manager and does not intend to return to work on boats.’
Fiscal depute Garry Aitken said Lach, of Drumnadrochit, Inverness-shire, was at the helm when the accident happened.
‘Miss Thabart was attempting to release a rope from the side of the lock when her right foot became entangled in it,’ he said.
‘The ship moved forward, tightening the rope around her leg. The rope snapped due to the pressure and Miss Thabart’s leg sustained considerable loss of blood and damage that it had to be amputated.’
In an interview with Highland Life magazine Miss Thabart – who was married last year and now works in the NHS – said she had a difficult choice after the accident – saving her foot through months of surgery and skin grafts or have it amputated.
‘I’d seen lots of documentaries about injured soldiers and I knew it’d be quick and I wouldn’t get a wooden leg,’ she said. ‘But somehow there’s a part of my femininity taken away.’
Freda Newton, Jacobite Cruises’ managing director, said the company deeply regretted what happened, adding: ‘Immediately after this incident we put a number of additional measures in place.’
‘Considerable loss of blood’