Warnings on ferry safety 'ignored'

The family of Moira Newman (above), who was killed in 2005, say warnings about another collision have been ignored. Photo / Supplied

The daughter of a woman who died after a collision with a Fullers ferry says Maritime NZ ignored her warnings that it would happen again.

Christine Rutherfurd and her family were celebrating Moira Newman's 74th birthday in 2005 when their boat was hit by a Fullers ferry. Mrs Newman suffered head injuries and died three weeks later in hospital.

Mrs Rutherfurd said a collision at the weekend reignited her anger.

"When I picked up the paper I had to sit down, I was shaking," she said. "But I wasn't surprised. The problem is deeper than just the skipper's vision, and it was not addressed at the time.

"We have been spitting tacks for the past five years."

On Saturday night, the 34m Quickcat and a 7.5m motor launch collided off Auckland's eastern suburbs. The launch, with two men on board, was run over.

Fullers staff rescued the two men, who were treated for minor injuries at Auckland City Hospital.

The collision, which split the launch in two, is the subject of a Maritime NZ investigation.

"It annoys me so much that it's happened again. I told Maritime it would happen again," said Mrs Rutherfurd.

She said she had an issue with management at Fullers.

The Saturday night accident occurred 3km from the scene of the January 4, 2005, collision.

"We are still bitter. The memory is sour and it has not gone away," said Mrs Rutherfurd.

Mrs Newman died a month before the 50th anniversary of her marriage to Rex Newman, 80, who was also on board.

"I looked over my shoulder at the ferry and thought, 'This is it. I'm not going to be here in five seconds. It's going to go right over the top of us'," Mr Newman said.

"The last vision I have, the ferry was 25m away and it was like a two-storey building heading at you."

Seven members of the Newman family were on board the 9m fishing boat Dr Hook when the Quickcat collided with it. The family fishing trip had been a birthday treat from Mr Newman to his wife, "but it didn't work out for her, of course", he said.

Mr Newman hoped Fullers had learned from his wife's death but said the ferries often think, "I'm bigger, I'm badder and I'm faster, everyone will see me coming and get out of my way."

A spokesman for Maritime NZ said there would be no comment until the investigation into the latest accident was further advanced.

Fullers said it would be inappropriate to comment until the investigation was completed.

A pleasure boatie, who wanted to be known as Mark, said he was in a similar situation and "nearly got killed" by the Quickcat, also in the Motuihe Channel, in 2008 and the Saturday collision did not surprise him.

"The big cat was coming towards us and by the time I realised we were really in trouble, we were 20 seconds away from being taken out.

"At the last minute, it veered and missed us by less than 30 metres."

Mark has filed four incident reports with the Auckland harbourmaster against Fullers ferries in the past two years.

The most recent was on July 27, 2010, and read: "The close passage of this vessel is one of just a number of unnecessarily poor seamanship examples I have seen recently with the Fullers vessels."

Mark said he had had no reply from the harbourmaster about this incident.

He described his close calls as "unnerving" and believed the men on board the launch "will never be the same again".

"It is a terrible experience having one of those things coming straight towards you. They are huge and it's the kind of thing that changes the way you feel on the water."

The harbourmaster refused to say how many complaints he had received about Fullers ferries.