An employee who was seriously injured after falling through an open hatch on the passenger vessel “The Spirit of Queenstown”, has led to tourism company, Southern Discoveries Limited, being fined $160,000, and ordered to pay costs by the Queenstown District Court.
The incident took place on 27 February 2020, when the employee was cleaning the main saloon of the vessel. While moving from one area to another, they stepped back and fell directly through an open hatch, landing on their back, at the bottom of the hold, 2.1 metres below.
The employee suffered a back injury, as the hatch had been left open by a colleague the night before and had failed to be closed during morning preparations.
As a result, the Court also ordered Southern Discoveries to pay approximately $35,000 in reparations for emotional harm and consequential loss to the employee.
As for Southern Discoveries, they have pleaded guilty to one charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 of exposing an individual to a risk of death or serious injury.
Maritime NZ’s investigation highlighted a series of failures that led to the incident
1. Southern Discoveries had identified the hatches as hazards in its Hazard Register and induction training was in place regarding their safe use. However, while Southern Discoveries employees working at Mt Nicholas Farm received a health and safety induction for the farm, they were not inducted on safe ways of working on The Spirit of Queenstown.
2. While there were orange safety cones on the vessel, these were only used to signal the hatches were open when contractors were working on board and the hatchways were in use. In addition, the employee was not aware, or told by their colleagues, that the hatch was open.
Southern Discoveries has since changed its practices to address the issues identified by Maritime NZ, with Maritime NZ Southern Compliance Manager, Domonic Venz, noting that “the incident had severe consequences for the employee and there were many actions Southern Discoveries could have taken to prevent harm.”
We encourage all businesses to proactively protect their workers and passengers from harm so that they return home unhurt