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Post by fish on Mar 9, 2023 10:43:20 GMT 12
An Auckland boatie has been ordered to pay $16,000 after hitting a diver, leaving him with a concussion and cuts to his head. Shaun Hollinger was sentenced in the Auckland District Court under the Maritime Transport Act for operating a vessel in a manner which caused unnecessary danger or risk to another person. Hollinger was ordered to pay $10,000 in emotional harm reparations and $2429 in consequential losses, and was fined $3600, totalling $16,029. Maritime NZ said Hollinger was travelling at more than double the permitted speed at the time of the incident in January 2022 when he was skippering a boat called Rain or Shine, a 5.4m recreational vessel near Auckland’s Little Barrier Island. “He struck a diver after failing to properly take account of a dive flag or slow down to five knots in the 200m vicinity of the dive flag.” At the time, another boat, the AWOL, was also in the area with seven people on board, with some of the passengers diving. AWOL’s skipper erected a diving flag to warn other vessels there were people in the water, Maritime NZ’s manager general regulatory operations, Jason Lunjevich, said. “If a diving flag is erected, other vessels within 200 metres of the flag need to slow down to five knots. “This is to protect divers.” Rain or Shine did slow down from 18 knots but it was still travelling through the 200m five knot area at speeds of between 10 to 13 knots, more than double the permitted speed. Witness reports described how passengers on AWOL tried to make the skipper of Rain or Shine aware there were people in the water, but said there was no change in speed. Shortly after they heard a bang and a diver surfaced yelling for help. The diver suffered cuts to his head and concussion as a result of the impact. “This was completely avoidable and needlessly put a diver at serious risk of injury,” Lunjevich said. “We are still in our busy period for recreational craft users, and diving, and we do not want to see repeats of incidents like this.” www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-boatie-to-pay-16000-for-hitting-diver-leaving-him-with-head-injuries/FYQBVZIAZNCHFIQMUVGBP5IEY4/?fbclid=IwAR3qAImc72t8-RT5udNV-4Rn9r4AaJisIq-vIZ1PzyF5M44hHWuVliDo8n8 |
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Post by ComfortZone on Mar 9, 2023 10:57:26 GMT 12
and as we well recall the sinking of Gypsy and severe injury to crew member saw the Antaeus owner/skipper fined $200 in what would be descibed as an identical failure...
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Post by fish on Mar 9, 2023 11:34:37 GMT 12
and as we well recall the sinking of Gypsy and severe injury to crew member saw the Antaeus owner/skipper fined $200 in what would be descibed as an identical failure... Ah but Double-Barrelled-Whatshisname of Antaeus suffered 'reputational loss'. Oh, and had a barrister (not the kind that makes coffee, the other kind, with a wig). As someone that enjoys spear fishing, I am substantially more concerned about fizz boats and jets ski's than sharks. You feel exceptionally vulnerable in the water, and there is fuck all you can do if someone is speeding towards you. I've only had one incident when a boat was coming towards me. I was holding my gun up and waving it (pointy end down), and they slowed down and went inside me and the headland I was diving on, but did it in such a way that I couldn't tell if they'd seen me. Most others will slow dramatically AND do a pronounced turn, (and normally wave) meaning I know they've seen me, so I can relax. The pronounced turn makes me feel very happy. Sometimes I wonder if I need a bigger gun. I've only got a little 90 cm single rubber reef gun. It is perfect for the fish I target, but I see these frigging cannon's at the dive shop, would be much more capable of nailing a boat. Possibly far more effective at getting idiots to keep clear than my regulation dive flag on my float boat. The legality side is interesting. If they are close enough to hit with a spear, are they inside 200m? Same question as throwing beer bottles at people passing to fast too close. If you can hit them, they were too close... |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2023 12:29:13 GMT 12
Not protecting the fizzy but dive flags need to constructed like a channel marker,that can slide apart as nil wind day and flag hangs limp..
Have seen flags on the stern quarter,not where you can see them until to late
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Post by Fogg on Mar 9, 2023 12:40:33 GMT 12
NZ Corruption. Much?
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Post by fish on Mar 9, 2023 12:42:09 GMT 12
Not protecting the fizzy but dive flags need to constructed like a channel marker,that can slide apart as nil wind day and flag hangs limp.. Have seen flags on the stern quarter,not where you can see them until to late Absolutely. I just got a second regulation flag, 600mm x 600mm, but it is just a flag. I'd be keen for one that was ridged, or had a batten along the top to hold it up. I've sorted mine to go over a fishing rod, so I can put the rod in a holder and angle it out at 45 degrees, so it hangs open. Hanging them vertical is about as useful as tits on a bull. With two flags I can put each rod / flag at opposite angles to assist in being seen. Like one fore and aft, the other athwartships, or sideways as most people describe it. I happen to have rod holders in my dinghy / tender, which I often dive from (take it in by the rocky bits where I wont take the mothership). So I can have an 8 ft tall rod with a 600 x 600 flag on it, plus the little flag on my float boat. If someone doesn't see that lot (3 flags, two 8 feet tall) then I reckon they're at risk of getting shot if they come within range ;-) |
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Post by ComfortZone on Mar 9, 2023 13:16:40 GMT 12
Not protecting the fizzy but dive flags need to constructed like a channel marker,that can slide apart as nil wind day and flag hangs limp.. Have seen flags on the stern quarter,not where you can see them until to late Also if the dive boat is dead downwind of you, the flag cannot be seen - happened to me once coming thru the Cavalli passage. something like a triangular or square shaped box on a pole, with all sides painted would have a better chance of being seen from all directions |
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Post by GO30 on Mar 10, 2023 4:44:26 GMT 12
and as we well recall the sinking of Gypsy and severe injury to crew member saw the Antaeus owner/skipper fined $200 in what would be descibed as an identical failure... The 2 are very different in the way they were handled so are not comparable.
The reason it was only 2 hundy is down to MNZ and it saying 'We don't care' when asked if they were going to investigate the crash. That then left the Akl Harbourmaster to do all he could which he did. The maximum he could do in law was a $200 fine. If MNZ weren't muppets then it could, probably would, have been a very different outcome.
Also don't forget the offending boat did offer to pay for the reconstruction until the public just went full feral on him, the majority without knowing the facts.
Not defending Antaeus, he was wrong and he very much knows it. But fairs fair, the end result was 100% due to MNZ laziness, nothing else.
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Post by GO30 on Mar 10, 2023 4:47:55 GMT 12
Not protecting the fizzy but dive flags need to constructed like a channel marker,that can slide apart as nil wind day and flag hangs limp.. Have seen flags on the stern quarter,not where you can see them until to late Technically the flags are to be very big, way bigger than 99% of them I see being used are. They are also supposed to be held out open. Smart people would, and do, use rigid signage.
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Post by ComfortZone on Mar 10, 2023 8:21:49 GMT 12
and as we well recall the sinking of Gypsy and severe injury to crew member saw the Antaeus owner/skipper fined $200 in what would be descibed as an identical failure... The 2 are very different in the way they were handled so are not comparable.
The reason it was only 2 hundy is down to MNZ and it saying 'We don't care' when asked if they were going to investigate the crash. That then left the Akl Harbourmaster to do all he could which he did. The maximum he could do in law was a $200 fine. If MNZ weren't muppets then it could, probably would, have been a very different outcome.
Also don't forget the offending boat did offer to pay for the reconstruction until the public just went full feral on him, the majority without knowing the facts.
Not defending Antaeus, he was wrong and he very much knows it. But fairs fair, the end result was 100% due to MNZ laziness, nothing else.
The suggestion at the time was that MNZ's "laziness" was knowingly contrived so that Antaeus skipper would face a much lower level charge/fine. True or not, don't know but how it all worked out looked remarkably convenient  |
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Post by GO30 on Mar 11, 2023 14:34:40 GMT 12
I was told by a very close source the HM pushed MNZ to make a call and they weren't interested so the HM felt something had to be done hence he did all he could. I have no reason not to believe that.
My MNZ related dealings support the above. They are about the most arse covering focused risk adverse organisation I know. I believe they saw who the gent in question was and ran for the hills as fast as they could.
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Post by Fogg on Mar 11, 2023 14:56:46 GMT 12
NZ Govt bodies are clearly awful and have visibly deteriorated in the 20-odd years I’ve been here.
And the closer you go from local to central Govt, the shabbier it gets.
True story.
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