Media Release

19 June 2013

Conviction for near miss with container ship

A near miss at sea has resulted in a commercial fisherman being found guilty in the Napier District Court today of the unsafe operation of a ship on 15 February 2012.

Robert Greathead was convicted and sentenced to 100 hours community service after a 2 day defended hearing.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is responsible for navigational safety in the region. HBRC decided to prosecute Mr Greathead because previous attempts to change poor behaviour by commercial and recreational vessel operators have not been getting through to enough people, or people are choosing to ignore the message.

Harbourmaster Captain Phil Norman repeats the key message. “Not only are you putting your own life at risk by running the gauntlet, you’re potentially putting at risk a vessel worth hundreds of millions of dollars If you cause a ship to run aground, you risk causing a catastrophic oil spill and interrupting the Napier Port for many months. The rules are clear - all vessels must not impede any ship greater than 500 tonnes and must not be closer than 500m from the bow of the ship.”

The Court heard from Marine Pilot, Captain Gus Matson that, as he was bringing the 246 metre long container ship MOL Summer into Napier Port, the fishing boat, the Regent, cut across the front of the larger ship. The Regent was being skippered by 21 year old fisherman, Robert Greathead.

As Captain Matson was about to execute a tight turn into the Port of Napier’s Breakwater Harbour, he was forced to cut the engines of the container ship to avoid a collision. The effect of stopping the engine meant the 38,332 tonne ship lost all steering and had to be pulled into the harbour by both the Port of Napier tug boats.

Captain Matson described the incident as being the closest he had ever come to running over another vessel in 43 years of being at sea.

Despite Mr Greathead testifying that he knew the rules of the road at sea, and maintaining his position that his radar never showed the ship within 500 metres of his vessel at any time, the Court found that the testimony of Captain Matson was convincing enough that Mr Greathead had crossed within 150-250 metres of the bow of the MOL Summer.

Judge Down deemed Mr Greathead’s actions to be reckless and hoped the conviction would send a clear message to all boat users of the importance of maintaining safe practices in and near the approaches to the Napier Port. He endorsed Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s stance by imposing 100 hours community service on Mr Greathead and awarding HBRC $3,898.77 for costs of the investigation.

HBRC’s Resource Use Manager, Bryce Lawrence says that if anyone is unclear about the marine rules and bylaws, they should either contact the Harbourmaster or attend a boating education course run by Coastguard.

“HBRC will continue to take action against boat users that impede shipping and we expect that individual circumstances may result in both higher financial and higher community service penalties being applied by the courts,” says Mr Lawrence.

ENDS

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