As she moved backwards, she fell 2m into the engine room, suffering injuries to her head and arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time of the incident, I was scared and alone. I had to get myself out of the hatch to get help.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had since left the company but still worked on boats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really struggle to get into hatches now. It\u2019s paralysing but I have to force myself to do it. It has been over a year but it still feels very present.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman said she considered herself lucky to come away from the incident without serious damage. <\/p>\n
The court heard she was not the only crew member injured aboard the vessel. <\/p>\n
In a separate incident, a worker fell into the water through a gap between the vessel and a gangway while refuelling in March 2024.<\/p>\n
She had been moving a fuel hose while simultaneously stepping backwards and talking to another staffer.<\/p>\n
The woman hit her head as she fell, suffering a concussion. She was in shock, unable to swim and had blurry vision. <\/p>\n
The court heard the incident had a lasting impact on her. She thought she was going to drown and continued to have vivid dreams and flashbacks. <\/p>\n
Whale Watch Kaik\u014dura was subsequently charged with two counts of failing to meet its duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act by exposing workers to the risk of serious injury or death, to which it pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
Judge Gerard Lynch fined the company $246,500 and ordered it to make $5000 emotional harm payments to each victim. <\/p>\n
After the sentencing, Maritime New Zealand said the decision to prosecute was made because the company had long been aware of the risks of falls but failed to put in place adequate physical controls. <\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, it relied on administrative measures such as staff awareness and communication, despite knowing that low-cost, practical safety improvements were available,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorkers should not be exposed to serious risks when safer systems are reasonably practicable. This prosecution reinforces the responsibility all operators have to provide safe workplaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whale Watch Kaik\u014dura CEO and executive chairman Thomas Kahu says the company accepts the outcome of the court case.<\/p>\n
Whale Watch Kaik\u014dura told NZME it accepted the court\u2019s outcome and that the incidents were unacceptable and it should have done more to prevent them from happening. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile both incidents were non-fatal and resulted in no lasting physical injury, we recognise that any harm to our people is unacceptable. We are sorry these incidents occurred,\u201d the company\u2019s CEO and executive chairman Thomas Kahu said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of the sentence, our view is unchanged: we could have done more at the time, and we have taken steps to ensure we do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahu said the company has introduced targeted mitigations for the specific hazards involved and undertaken a company-wide review of its safety systems since the incidents. <\/p>\n
\u201cImprovements include revised operating procedures, additional competency training, strengthened oversight, and equipment\/process upgrades across relevant areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to monitor and refine these measures. Whale Watch Kaik\u014dura has historically maintained a strong safety record. Our ongoing priority is a safe workplace for every member of our team, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There had been changes in her personality; her confidence was low and she struggled to talk to people.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[66477,9490,64,63,66478,64483,38019,28843,41794,66476,580,66481,29253,12979,66475,66480,16804,66479,36439,16863,128,23180,13056,6771,66482,7137,38810,338,16642,32388],"class_list":["post-89261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-245k","tag-after","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breaches","tag-crew","tag-down","tag-engine","tag-falling","tag-fined","tag-for","tag-hatch","tag-head","tag-injuries","tag-kaikura","tag-nightmares","tag-open","tag-recurring","tag-room","tag-safety","tag-science","tag-still","tag-suffering","tag-tourism","tag-vessel","tag-watch","tag-whale","tag-wildlife","tag-woman","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}