Fullers ferry crash: Teacher's brain injuries prevent return to work

The Fullers ferry Kea, pictured in 2015, has been involved in several incidents including one which saw a woman suffer head trauma. Photo / NZ Herald

A teacher has been unable to return to work after suffering a brain bleed when she fell down the stairs of an Auckland ferry which crashed into a wharf.

The trainee master of the catamaran that day was on his first on-run berthing with passengers on Waitematā Harbour and says he felt pressured by Fullers to complete his training faster.

Details outlining the latest of several incidents involving the troubled Kea can now be published after court documents were released to the Herald as the Fullers Group is prosecuted by Maritime New Zealand for a second time.

The company has pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a duty that exposed an individual to risk of death or serious injury, which carries a maximum penalty of a $1.5 million fine.

The teacher was one of 52 passengers on board during the night of November 9, 2017, as the catamaran left Auckland's CBD for the routine trip to Devonport's Victoria Wharf.

But during the final stages of its voyage the Kea veered suddenly to starboard.

Seconds later the corner of the ferry collided with the wharf bouncing the 105 tonne boat back into the harbour.

It jolted the standing passengers waiting to disembark and threw the teacher, who is in her 40s, from the top of a stairwell.

She hit her head on the deck and was knocked unconscious, while another man also fell and landed on her.

Other passengers came to her aid, with one later describing her as "very distant and incoherent", court documents read.

Luckily one passenger on board the Kea was a nurse and began treating the teacher until emergency crews arrived 10 to 15 minutes later.

After being taken to North Shore Hospital, she was diagnosed with head trauma, brain bleeding, and a fractured rib.

She remained there for week before being discharged.

But the teacher has had ongoing issues since the crash, such as a lung infection from the broken rib, headaches, fatigue, and memory lapses.

She also suffers persistent cognitive difficulties and has been unable to return to work, court documents read.

A third person on the ferry also suffered minor injuries.

When the Kea crashed in 2017 it was being helmed by trainee master Alan Schofield, who was under the supervision of the highly experienced Kea operator Paul Slater, court documents show.

While Schofield was a veteran skipper himself he had only started training to be the ferry's master a few weeks before the crash.

After the Kea crashed into the Victoria Wharf in 2015, injuring several passengers and crew, Fullers decided only experienced masters would operate the ferry due to its design flaws.

The master, when standing at the controls, is unable to see a section of the berth during the final stages of an approach. Instead they are forced to use reference points and lose visibility.

Two hours of training time was allocated for Schofield specifically to off-run berthing on October 24, 2017.

However, both Schofield and Slater say they were under pressure from Fullers to complete their training quickly and asked for their roster to be changed to allow more time, court documents show.

But Fullers was unable to make the Kea available for further off-run exercises due to maintenance.

Mike Horne, Fullers CEO, says safety is the company's No 1 priority. Photo / Supplied

On the day of the crash, Slater was taking control of the Kea during peak hours so they could keep it running to schedule.

When Schofield lined up the Kea at 9pm, Slater said it was perfect and at the right speed, court documents read.

But when the Kea veered suddenly Schofield was not able to react in time, while Slater couldn't take over the controls.

The cause of the crash remains officially "unconfirmed", court documents show.

A report by Fullers, however, said the accident was a result of both systems and tidal influences.

In an interview with Maritime New Zealand, Schofield said he felt he needed more training and practice with berthing the Kea.

Slater also later told Maritime NZ a trainee master would ideally need an hour and a half of off-run training each day for two weeks before being confident with the ferry.

The 2017 crash was the latest of several incidents involving the Kea during the past 20 years, some of which have injured passengers and crew.

One incident in May 2009 also saw the Kea collide with the Devonport wharf, causing a passenger to fall down the stairs and be knocked unconscious.

A February 2015 crash with the same wharf led to Fullers being ordered to pay $92,500 to its victims and fined $40,000 by the Auckland District Court.

All Kea masters were retrained following the 2015 incident, while Fullers also increased its budget for skills and training.

Despite this, the amount of off-run training time Schofield had before the 2017 crash was less than what Kea masters received during the retraining, court documents read.

Fullers chief executive Mike Horne said safety was the company's "top priority, and a core value across our operation".

Fullers planned to invest $1.2 million in vessel training and $350,000 in crew training this year alone, after committing in 2018 to investing more heavily in training and to "raise the bar in operational safety", he said.

"Kea has been serving the Devonport community for 31 years, moving to and from the city through an increasingly crowded waterspace," he said. "While we firmly believe that even one incident is one too many, Kea has had only a small number of unrelated incidents across hundreds of thousands of runs.

"An incident like this is distressing for all involved and we are working hard to do all we can to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Horne has previously said the company has fully co-operated with Maritime NZ throughout the latest court proceedings.

Fullers is due to be sentenced in October.