Firm admits fault in deaths

A company that specialises in marine construction work has admitted failing to ensure the safety of two employees who died when their inflatable craft was lost at the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour in stormy seas.

Heron Construction pleaded guilty to two charges in Christchurch District Court yesterday and Maritime New Zealand dropped two other charges.

Judge Stephen Erber remanded the case for sentencing on December 14 and ordered that half a day be set aside to hear the legal submissions and set the penalty.

Jody Campbell, 29, from South Auckland, and Tony Utteridge, 39, of Lyttelton, had been working for Heron Construction on Christchurch City Council's ocean outfall project when the accident happened on October 28 last year.

Mr Campbell, an excavator driver, and Mr Utteridge, a deckhand and boatbuilder, had been working on a sewage outfall pipe when a storm got up and they decided to head back to shore.

But the inflatable either capsized or they were lost overboard and drowned.

Mr Campbell's body was found the next day and Mr Utteridge's was found about two weeks later.

Heron Construction admitted it failed as an employer and principal to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of the employees.

It also admitted that the inflatable - a 6m Naiad - did not hold a valid safe ship management certificate at the time.

Two weeks ago, construction giant McConnell Dowell admitted charges arising from the same afternoon when the storm blew up and caused problems for the project out in Pegasus Bay.

It admitted failing to ensure the safety of employees aboard the barge Flexifloat and failing to have a safe ship management certificate.

The barge was being brought in to Lyttelton when the connection failed between the barge and tugboat. The barge drifted close to Godley Heads.

McConnell Dowell is due to be sentenced on October 14.

Mr Campbell and Mr Utteridge used the Naiad to help secure a towline to a dredge and then set off to return to Lyttelton.

They were last seen in the distance, wearing their lifejackets, as the little vessel headed in to harbour with the wind gusting to 40 knots with a rising swell on the outgoing tide.

There was a call from Mr Campbell's cellphone about 6.30pm, but the person who answered heard only noise as though the call had failed.

When the supposedly unsinkable craft was overdue, a search was launched that evening and Mr Campbell's body was found at 3am.

- NZPA