Skipper convicted for ignoring safety rules
DATE: 30 AUGUST 2011
Skipper convicted for ignoring safety rules
An experienced Auckland skipper has been convicted and fined more than $5000 for deliberately ignoring basic maritime safety rules designed to ensure vessels do not collide on the water.
In the Auckland District Court
yesterday (August 29), Melville John Bolton, 73, of Mt
Roskill, was convicted and fined $4000 and ordered to pay
court costs $1,356, after being convicted on 13 January this
year of one charge of “operating a vessel in a manner
causing unnecessary danger or risk” under S65 of the
Maritime Transport Act (MTA) 1994.
The conviction
followed an MNZ investigation into an incident on the
Hauraki Gulf on 14 March 2009, in which the Waiheke to
Auckland ferry Seaway II had to take emergency evasive
action to avoid a collision with the yacht Classique,
skippered by Mr Bolton.
Despite the master of the
Seaway II attempting to warn Mr Bolton with repeated blasts
on the ship’s whistle that the Classique would cut
dangerously close across his path, the warnings were
ignored. Alarmed that a collision was imminent, the master
of the Seaway II was forced to slow rapidly and put the
vessel into reverse, allowing the yacht to pass close across
his bow and down the starboard (right) side of the
vessel.
Despite being a vastly experienced skipper,
when questioned by MNZ, Mr Bolton admitted he had
deliberately ignored the maritime collision prevention
rules, which are designed to stop dangerous ‘close
quarter’ situations from developing, as he had assumed the
ferry would alter its course to port. He argued at the
hearing that a customary body of law existed that enabled
him to use his own experience and judgment of the situation
to assess the risk of collision – despite the existence of
the Maritime Rules. The District Court Judge rejected that
argument.
MNZ Manager of Maritime Investigations,
Steve van der Splinter, said the incident illustrated the
dangers of skippers ignoring internationally recognised
safety rules, and automatically assuming that other skippers
would take the right course of action when confronted with a
potentially dangerous collision situation.
“This
would be a bit like turning your car across the path of an
oncoming truck and then expecting the truck driver to take
the correct action to avoid you. This is clearly reckless
and foolish in the extreme, and it’s only down to the
quick thinking and skill of the master of the Seaway II that
this incident did not result in far more serious
consequences.
“No matter how skilled or experienced
a skipper you may be, the collision prevention rules are
there for a good reason – to prevent these situations from
happening in the first place – and no-one is above the
rules,” Mr van der Splinter said.
Breaches by
individuals of S65 of the MTA on conviction carry penalties
of a fine not exceeding $10,000 or a term of imprisonment
not exceeding one year.
Mr van der Splinter said the
large fine imposed reflected the seriousness of the
offending.
ENDS