Fine for company and master after incident at Inverness


The owners and the master of a cruise ship involved a in serious accident which cost a crew member her leg have been handed out fines totalling £8,000 today

Jacobite Cruises Limited admitted charges brought under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 after Aurelia Thabert lost her leg in the incident in June 2012.

The master Andrew Paul Lach (47) pleaded guilty to a charge brought under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

On 20th June 2012, the Loch Ness cruise ship Jacobite Queen was returning to her berth at Tomnahurich Bridge, Inverness when the incident happened in Dochgarroch Locks.

Aurelia Thabert, then aged 25, was working as a crew member onboard the Jacobite Queen. She was attempting to release a rope from the side of the lock when her right foot became entangled in a bight of the rope.

The ship moved forward tightening the rope around her leg. Ms Thabert was treated at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where because of the damage caused to her leg, an amputation had to be carried out.

In the Sheriff Court of Grampian Highland and Islands today (27th October), Andrew Paul Lach pleaded guilty to omitting to ensure all mooring ropes had been removed from the hooks at the side of Dochgarroch Locks, before putting the engines ahead. This was in breach of section 58 (2)(b)(ii) of the Merchant Shipping Act as amended.

The company Jacobite Cruises Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employee and failing to make sure there was an appropriate means of communication available between the master and crew while mooring ropes were being handled. This is contrary to Section 2 (1) and section 33 (1) (a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Jacobite Cruises Limited was fined £6,000, reduced from £9,000 for a guilty plea. Andrew Paul Lach was fined £2,000, reduced from £3,000 for a guilty plea.

Area operations manager for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency Captain Bill Bennett said: ‘Basic seamanship says that if the master doesn’t have a clear line of sight to the aft mooring rope ashore, they should not attempt to put the engine ahead before getting the all clear.

‘The investigation clearly showed that although the company provided UHF handheld walkie-talkie radios aboard the vessel, these were not working on the day in question. This potentially impacted the ability of the master and crew to communicate clearly with one another.’

Popular posts from this blog

Label your kit at the coast

Image
Kayaks. Canoes. Paddleboards. What do they all have in common? They’re quite often found on the coastline or drifting out to sea. And if we don’t know who they belong to, we can spend time searching for an owner when they’re home safe and sound. So please help us to help you. Label your kit so that if you do get separated from it, and it turns up somewhere, we can get hold of you. In recent weeks, our Coastguard Rescue Teams have found numerous items such as kayaks and canoes drifting out at sea or abandoned near the shoreline. Unfortunately, some of the items we have found have not had their owners’ contact details written on them nor been reported as missing to the Coastguard. As a result, it makes it difficult for us to find out who it belongs to and also means we can never be completely sure if someone is safe or in the worst case, in trouble at sea. This can place a huge strain on our resources especially during the busy summer period when we have to call upon our Coastgua
Read more

A short history of HM Coastguard

Image
Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back almost 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though it’s beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a threat to the country’s economy and security – smuggling. As soon as medieval taxes were charged on imports and exports, people began smuggling. By 1743 th e estimate was that half the tea drunk in Britain was illegally imported and shows that smuggling was highly profitable. Smugglers have often been romanticised but the reality was brutal. Local people lived in fear, with violent reprisals on informers and the murder of revenue officers, while corruption enabled smugglers to evade harsh p
Read more

BOSCASTLE FLOODS: TEN YEARS ON

Image
Boscastle Flooding 16 th August 2004 The storms of Monday 16 August 2004 saw three weeks worth of rain fall in one day. The resulting water began to be funnelled down the valleys surrounding Boscastle and soon the steep roads became rivers. By the time that the water reached the picturesque village, it had picked up enough momentum to become a raging torrent, sweeping into buildings, washing cars away and felling huge trees. Graham King runs the Witches Museum in Boscastle and was also the station officer for the Boscastle Coastguard Rescue Team at the time of the floods: “ My museum is situated next to the harbour near the river ,” says Graham “ and I can see the coastguard equipment store from there. Initially I was concerned that the vehicle and equipment were going to become stranded but I soon began to realise how quickly the situation was deteriorating and called Falmouth Coastguard ” From that point on the villagers and tourists stranded in flood waters were he
Read more