A skipper and a Loch Ness tourism firm have been fined a total of £8,000 after a female crew member was so badly injured that her leg was amputated.
Passengers went to the aid of Aurelia Thabart after she was left screaming in pain when she got caught in the ropes of a Jacobite Cruises vessel.
She was rushed to Raigmore Hospital after the incident at Dochgarroch Locks on the Caledonian Canal, but her injuries were so bad she had to have the lower part of her leg amputated.
At Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, skipper Andrew Lach was fined £2,000 after the 47-year-old from Drumnadrochit admitted failing to ensure the mooring ropes were released before moving his vessel forward.
The company, which is branded “Loch Ness by Jacobite”, was fined £6,000 after admitting a breach of health and safety by failing to ensure an appropriate means of communication was available between master and crew, and that appropriate radios were available in good working order.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood said: “I am not attempting to put a value on this terrible accident. My job is to assess the culpability of Mr Lach and the company.”
Fiscal depute Garry Aitken told the court that Lach had been at the helm of the Jacobite Queen on June 20, 2012.
He said: “Ms Thabart was attempting to release a rope from the side of the lock when her right foot became entangled in it.
“The ship moved forward, tightening the rope around her leg. The rope snapped due to the pressure and Ms Thabart’s leg sustained considerable loss of blood and damage that it had to be amputated.”
Lach’s counsel, advocate Barry Smith, said: “Mr Lach asssumed the rope had been released by Ms Thabart who had received an earlier instruction to do so.
“He should not have made that assumption and sought positive confirmation that it had been released.
“My client accepts he made a serious error of judgement. It has been in his mind every day since and he does not see that changing.”
The court heard that Ms Thabart, who was 25 at the time of the incident, was screaming in pain as passengers and crew came to her aid. She was in hospital for a month afterwards.
Mr Aitken said: “She recalled Andrew Lach saying to her: ‘I am sorry, I didn’t see you. I didn’t see the rope was still on.’
“She has had a prosthetic limb fitted and has coped well since the incident.”
Lawyer for the company Bruce Craig confirmed: “All civil aspects of this case have been resolved and when she left, she left on friendly terms.”
The court heard that the company had “an excellent safety record” and it was the first time in over 40 years of being in business that it had been prosecuted for any incident.
Jacobite Cruises turns over £2.6million a year and carries 200,000 passengers annually.
Speaking after the ruling, Freda Newton, managing director of the firm, said: “At Jacobite Cruises the health and safety of our team and customers is our highest priority.
“We continually review our procedures to ensure our crew are equipped to do their jobs safely and immediately after this incident we put a number of additional measures in place.
“We deeply regret that this incident occurred.”
Captain Bill Bennett, area operations manager for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, said: “Basic seamanship says that if the master doesn’t have a clear line of sight to the aft mooring rope ashore, they should not attempt to put the engine ahead before getting the all clear.
“The investigation clearly showed that although the company provided UHF handheld walkie-talkie radios aboard the vessel, these were not working on the day in question.
“This potentially impacted the ability of the master and crew to communicate clearly with one another.”
