An inexperienced Auckland boatie who ran over a diver in the water has been ordered to pay $17,500 in reparation after the diver suffered serious injuries including a cut to the head that needed eight staples.
Carl Allan Whiteman pleaded guilty to one charge under the Maritime Transport Act of causing unnecessary danger or risk to any other person and was sentenced in the North Shore District Court today. The diver was spear fishing with an orange buoy and blue and white dive flag between Ti Point and Omaha on February 5, 2017, when he was hit by Whiteman's 3.5m inflatable powerboat.
It was Whiteman's third or fourth time taking the boat out on the water.
The diver, a self-employed arborist from Auckland, suffered significant lacerations to his head and a broken arm and lacerations to his arm that required numerous stitches. As a result of his injuries he was unable to work for 12 months.
Whiteman and three passengers left the Omaha boat ramp in his 3.5 metre inflatable powerboat. He said he saw the orange buoy but did not "register" the dive flag on the buoy. He assumed the buoy marked a crayfish pot and did not alter course or slow down.