SECOND PROSECUTION FOLLOWING GROUNDING IN PENTLAND FIRTH
Defendant: NES Ltd of Hafnarfjordur, Iceland at Southampton Magistrates’ Court Date of Offence: 10 January 2007 Offence: Breaches of the Collision Regulations, the International Safety Management Code and the Carriage of Cargoes Regulations Details: The prosecution follows an investigation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency into the circumstances surrounding the incident involving the `Sunna in the early hours of the morning of the 10th January 2007. The Mate of the vessel was alone on the bridge during the hours of darkness. Unfortunately he fell asleep and at about 04.40 a.m. the Sunna ran aground on the western side of the island of Swona. The vessel was carrying 1900 tonnes of Ferrosilicone. The ship was re-floated as the tide rose the next morning with the help of an Orkney harbour tug and the Longhope Lifeboat and was towed into Lyness. The Sunna received severe damage to its hull with the ship bottoms damaged from stem to the engine room bulkhead. An investigation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) revealed that although the ship only had a crew of seven, the watchkeeper was alone on the bridge. as the Captain had instructed that the seaman were to be used as day workers and not stand a watch. It also showed that about three months before the incident, during a Port state Control at Moerdijk, Netherlands on the 2nd November 2006, the vessel was warned that a lookout as required by the STCW Code was required during the hours of darkness. Ferrosilicone is perfectly safe when kept dry however when in contact with moisture it can produce hydrogen, phosphine and arsine gas. For this reason the vessel was required to carry equipment for testing the atmosphere. The equipment for detecting phosphine and arsine were out of date; the phosphine equipment by as much as 4 years. The Sunna had carried Ferrosilicone on a regular basis prior to the grounding. Penalty: NES Ltd were fined a total of £10.500 plus £5987 in costs for three offences. Notes: Charges against the owners of the vessel, Sunna Shipping Ltd were discontinued as the company no longer exists, following the sale of the vessel in 2007. _________________________________________________________________ MOTOR CRUISER GOES WRONG WAY UP TRAFFIC SEPARATION SCHEME
Defendant: Mr Lee Choat at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court Date of Offence: 5 March 2008 Offence: Breach of Collision Regulations – Rule 10 (b)(i) Details: A 36ft motor pleasure vessel was being delivered to a new owner based at a location on the River Crouch in Essex from Brighton. The delivery skipper for this journey was Lee Choat. Mr Choat is an experienced skipper who owns his own motor boat and holds appropriate Royal Yachting Association qualifications. At approximately 10.40 a.m. the vessel entered the South West shipping lane in the Dover Straits Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). Mr Choat then took the vessel in a north easterly direction against the general flow of traffic. The vessel continued in this lane for approximately 50minutes travelling about 15 miles before exiting the South West lane and re-entering the Inshore Traffic Zone. During this period the vessel passed relatively close to three large merchant ships that were travelling in a south westerly direction. Coastguard Officers at Dover Channel Navigation Information Service (CNIS) based at Langdon Battery made a number of unsuccessful attempts to contact the vessel by VHF radio. A passing ship was able to describe to Dover CNIS the colour and type of craft. The Coastguard aircraft was launched to identify the radar target. Having left the lane Mr Choat became aware of the aircraft activity and answered a radio call from Dover CNIS. The Chairman of the Bench said that there were four aggravating factors in this case
Penalty: Mr Choat was fined £6,000 plus costs of £2,084.45. In arriving at the fine they took into account his early guilty plea and co-operation with the MCA. SKIPPER PROSECUTED UNDER THE RAILWAYS AND TRANSPORT SAFETY ACT 2003 Defendant: Oleg Filimonov at Brighton Magistrate’s Court Date of Offence: 4 July 2008 Offence: Charged under the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 – Section 78. Details: The vessel was a Barbados registered coaster. The Customs Cutter VIGILANT was undertaking normal duties when they found the Master to be impaired by alcohol. He was reported as intoxicated to the MCA Surveyor who, in turn, requested that the Newhaven Harbour Master inform the local Police so he could be breathalysed. Mr Filimonov refused to be breathalysed and was arrested and taken to the Police Station. In Brighton Magistrate’s Court on 9 July 2008 Mr Filimonov pleaded guilty to one offence contrary to section 7(6) Road Traffic Act 1988 as amended by Sections 78, 82 and 83 of The Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003. Penalty: He was sentenced to a £2000 fine. He was unable to pay as ordered and the Court ordered that he serve 1 day’s detention in lieu. Notes: Repatriation was to be considered and the Master will lose his qualification. He had previously been reported by HMRC for a significant revenue offence and was obstructive from the outset of the boarding by Cutter Officers. The crew found an invoice which suggested the offender had purchased three bottles of Gin earlier in the day. Only a part full single bottle was found on board. The Cutter crew became aware that the ship was on orders for a sailing between Newhaven and Dean quarry in the West Country and that it was due to sail very soon. Their clear concern was the danger to the ship, crew and thousands of others seagoing users in the English Channel that night. _________________________________________________________________ FISHING BOAT SKIPPER SENT TO JAIL FOR DEATH OF TWO CREWMEN Defendant: Conrad Zych at Belfast Crown Court. Date of Offence: 19th January 2006 Offence: Manslaughter Details: On the morning of 19th January 2006 the Greenhill sailed with a crew of three; Conrad Zych, 28, Donall Gibson, 22 and Connor Bogues, 24. The boat spent the day trawling for prawns to the East of Ardglass. They stopped fishing at around 1600hrs on order to return to port. Conrad Zych admitted that he spent much of the return journey away from the wheelhouse working with the crew in the shelter deck, processing the prawns. He occasionally stepped back up into the wheelhouse to check their location before returning again to the deck. The weather that night was quite strong southerly winds with occasional rain showers. The sea was moderately rough. At 2016 hours Falmouth Coastguard received a signal from an Emergency Position Indicating Rescue Beacon (EPIRB). The Portaferry Lifeboat Blue Peter 5 was launched and at 2120 it located the liferaft from the Greenhill, but only the skipper was found inside. Skipper Zych told police that he had been working on the deck and when the boat grounded he ran to the wheelhouse and put the engines full astern. The boat backed off the rocks sustaining serious damage and began to fill with water. The skipper instructed the crew to fetch their lifejackets from the cabin, but it was already flooded and so they launched the liferaft. All three jumped into the water. Only the skipper managed to climb into the liferaft. The search continued all night for the missing crew, however no other survivors were found. Divers subsequently found the body of Donnal Gibson on the 22nd January. In summing up, the judge His Honour John Hart said that the skipper’s neglect of essential safety precautions could not be excused, and that his neglect to keep a proper lookout amounted to gross negligence and led directly to this terrible tragedy. He added that the failure to keep a proper watch is a not uncommon practice cannot exculpate the defendant from punishment, nor should it affect the nature of the punishment. A joint investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency was conducted into why the Greenhill had grounded and subsequently sank near the entrance to her home port of Ardglass. Penalty: 12 months imprisonment for each charge of unlawful killing of Donall Gibson and Connor Bogues, with sentences to run concurrently. _________________________________________________________________ SKIPPER PROSECUTED FOR CAPSIZE OF MUSSEL DREDGER AND DEATH OF CREWMAN IN CARLINGFORD LOUGH
Defendant: Kevin Trainor at Belfast Magistrate’s Court Date of Offence: 31 January 2002 Offence: Common Law charges of endangering the boat causing loss of life, and of endangering the boat causing the loss of the boat by capsize. Details: The boat was a small day working mussel dredger of 9.8 metres length which was operated by a skipper and two crew men. On the weekend before the accident the skipper’s father and owner of the boat, James Trainor had removed the emergency bilge pump from the engine room leaving a 4 inch hole in the boat’s side. Before the boat went to sea on the 30 January 2002 the skipper Kevin Trainor said that he had fitted a wooden bung into the hole from inside the engine room. The boat began fishing on 30 January 2002, and by the afternoon had about five tonnes of mussels on the deck. They failed to make the tide and so were unable to discharge the catch. The next day they continued to fish and by noon on 31 January 2002 with about 7.5 tonnes of mussels on the deck the boat slowly turned over and capsized. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) assisted the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and the Public Prosecution Service in the investigation. In Belfast Magistrate’s Court recently Kevin Trainor pleaded guilty to two common law charges. Penalty: He was sentenced to 18 months in jail suspended for three years. In passing sentence the judge told him that was it not for the fact that it had taken so long for the case to come to court he would not have suspended the sentence. _________________________________________________________________ |
