Passengers on a ferry that crashed into Devonport wharf after the vessel suffered an apparent mechanical failure suffered suspected broken bones and one was knocked out, police say.
Sixteen passengers and a Fullers crew member were injured when the vessel struck the wharf late this morning, crunching its bow and knocking people out of seats.
Passengers injured in ferry crash as unsecured plastic chairs hurled to floor
Unsecured seating is being blamed for the large number of passengers injured when an Auckland ferry hit the Victoria Wharf at Devonport yesterday, jolting many to the floor.
"When it hit the wharf, all the seats went flying forward," said a man sitting at the rear of the Kea's enclosed main deck when the veteran Fullers ferry struck a concrete pillar on the disused fishing wharf just after 11am with 61 passengers and three crew on board.
Ambulances took 17 people including a crew member away for treatment for injuries ranging from a head gash to a suspected broken arm, six to North Shore Hospital and the rest to a Takapuna accident clinic as the Kea was left with a gaping hole through its above-hull bulwark and into its outside bow deck.
The passenger said he remained securely seated in the crash but dozens of others in plastic chairs in the middle were hurled to the floor
"All the plastic ones aren't bolted down - I think they must have them like that so they can take them out and wash down the floors."
He said the Kea was heading to its normal landing at the Devonport wharf before "it hooked hard to the right and smacked into the opposite [Victoria] wharf".
A woman in front of him suffered a gash to her head and "there was quite a bit of blood".
Elderly passengers, children and a pregnant women were among others sent flying from their seats.
Belmont woman Judy Rhodes suffered a sprained wrist and ankle, and whiplash.
"The seats were ripped out - they all came forward - I went flying off my seat and landed on the ground," she said.
Seats that were dislodged.
"The woman in front of me was pregnant and looking after this elderly gentlemen so I went to look after her but she said she was a midwife and was okay."
Mrs Rhodes phoned her husband to collect her but "when I got off, my legs were all jelly."
Her ankle swelled immediately and her wrist - already sore from a prior injury - also began to hurt but it was only later that her neck started aching.
Auckland Council member and Devonport resident Chris Darby said he noticed different seating not bolted in when on the Kea last week.
Although he reported it to Auckland Transport only after hearing of yesterday's crash, his experience of sailing a yacht from Auckland to Seattle had taught him to "keep things fixed down on a vessel".
Fullers chief executive Doug Hudson said last night he visited the vessel after the crash and saw "evidence of some seats moving, but a lot hadn't".
The Kea was built to standard specifications 27 years ago and, because it was a lower speed vessel than the rest of Fullers fleet, had never been legally required to have all its seats bolted down.
The Kea • 27 years old • About 10,000 trips a year between Auckland and Devonport • Carrying capacity - 411 passengers
