Catamaran firm must pay $93,000 after passenger's back breaks on board

Monday, 19 March 2018

A passenger's back broke on board the catamaran Mack Attack as it approached Cape Brett in the Bay of Islands (file photo).

A catamaran operator has been ordered to pay more than $93,000 after a 60-year-old passenger's back broke when the vessel hit a large wave.

Seafort Holdings Limited and its sole director and shareholder, Richard John Prentice, were sentenced in the Auckland District Court.

Cathy Cooke was left paralysed after a 2010 incident on board the Mack Attack.

The sentencing decision of Judge Christopher Field was released on Thursday.

The incident occurred on October 18, 2014 as the catamaran, Mack Attack, approached Cape Brett in Northland's Bay of Islands.

Prentice was the master of the vessel, which can reach speeds of up to 100kmh, on that occasion.

The catamaran struck a large wave and landed heavily, the court heard.

The victim Raewyn Russell and her husband Craig Russell were sitting in the front row of seats.

As the catamaran landed, Russell was thrown forward and, when landing back in her seat, heard a loud crack and doubled over in pain.

An ambulance met Mack Attack at Waitangi Wharf, and Russell was taken to Bay of Islands Hospital where she was found to have a fracture in her eleventh thoracic vertebrae.

Maritime New Zealand investigated and both Seafort Holdings and Prentice was charged under the Maritime Transport Act with omitting to do an act that caused unnecessary danger or risk to any other person.

They pleaded not guilty, and a trial begin in September 2017.

Both Seafort and Prentice were convicted in February.

Judge Field ordered them to pay $32,630 in reparation to Russell.

Seafort was also fined $55,000 and Prentice was fined $5500.

Judge Field said the company and master 'were in a position to ensure that Mrs Russell was advised of the increased risk at the front of the vessel and to have seated [passengers] appropriately'.

Russell 'did not have the opportunity to make her own informed choice about where to sit based on [her] knowledge of [her] physiology and [her] appetite for risk', he said.

Judge Field said Russell had not been advised of the heightened risk of back injuries for passengers sitting at the front of high-speed vessels.

The 60-year-old, who had worked as a manager and travelling saleswoman, now had a permanent disability and had had to give up her career, he said.

Maritime NZ northern regional manager Neil Rowarth said the convictions sent an important message to masters and owners of passenger vessels.

'You have responsibility for your passengers' safety,' he said.

'You must take practical steps to help keep your passengers safe.'

It is not the first time that Seafort has been fined over an incident on board the Mack Attack.

In 2010, 53-year-old Cathy Cooke was left paralysed after the boat hit a wave and she was thrown to the floor.

The catamaran had been on the way to the Hole in the Rock landmark when the incident occurred.

'I found I could not feel my legs and had no mobility . . . and then I felt the pain,' Cooke said in court during that sentencing.

On Monday, the Whangarei resident said she was left surprised by the latest prosecution.

'I had understood [Mack Attack] weren't operating anymore,' she said.

'I'm not against those sort of operations but I do feel they do need to have their safety procedures in place.'

Cooke said she was not told to put a safety belt on before she was injured.

Seafort was ordered to pay Cooke $90,000 compensation for that incident.

The firm was also fined $20,000 for failing to take steps to ensure its passengers were safe and $10,000 for failing to notify authorities of the accident.

'I'm still not walking but I believe I will,' Cooke said on Monday.