Judge: Killing mate high enough price

Keith Clifford Longley's boat after the fatal accident in Tauranga. Photo / APN

A Bay of Plenty man who caused the death of his mate when he crashed a powerboat into a harbour marker has escaped conviction.

Keith Clifford Longley, 65, was discharged without conviction in the Tauranga District Court yesterday after a judge acknowledged the "significant price" he had paid since losing his life-long friend Richard Evans in a tragic boating accident this year.

Mr Evans was visiting from Canada when he and Mr Longley set out for a day's fishing in Tauranga Harbour on the morning of February 7.

On their way back to the jetty, Mr Longley steered the boat into a beacon marker, stopping the vessel immediately and detaching the marker from the sea floor.

Mr Evans received a serious fracture to his forehead and lacerations to his legs when his head was slammed against the cabin entranceway, and was then trapped inside the craft as it began to sink. He died at the scene.

Longley had serious injuries, including a fractured skull, jaw and eyesocket, and later told police he couldn't remember the crash and could not explain why it had happened.

After pleading guilty on Monday to a charge of operating a vessel in a manner likely to cause unnecessary danger to persons or to property, Longley was yesterday discharged after paying a $3000 donation to the Tauranga Coastguard and $500 for court costs.

Judge Peter Rollo said the donation, as well as Longley's having to accept responsibility for the tragedy, carried a deterrent effect.

"You have paid a significant emotional price, both yourself and your family, for this tragic accident. A loss of a life-long friend is a significant burden to carry - there is immense deterrence in that circumstance alone."

Since the tragedy, Longley had travelled to Canada to apologise to Mr Evans' widow, who did not want to see him prosecuted.

Longley declined to comment yesterday.

Tauranga Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker said he accepted the judge's sentence and did not wish to comment further.

Water Safety New Zealand manager Matt Claridge agreed with the sentence, and compared the case to parents who lost a child in a home pool drowning.

"They might find there's non-compliance, but they've been through enough and there's no real point in prosecuting," he said.

"The only advantage in prosecuting in this case would be to makean example and, to be fair, losingyour best mate though an incident you've caused yourself is probablyone of the harshest penalties you can cop."

Rotorua schoolboys Ricardo Maaka and Teimana Harrison were last month convicted and discharged over a January jetski accident that caused the death of their best friend, Bishop Thompson.