KiwiRail charged over Cook Strait ferry grounding
Photo: Supplied / Renee Horncastle
Maritime NZ has filed two health and safety charges against KiwiRail over its grounding of the Interislander ferry Aratere nearly a year ago.
On June 21, 2024, the ship grounded just north of Picton with 47 people on board.
No-one was injured and the ship was refloated just under 24 hours later.
A preliminary Transport Investigation Commission report found the event started with an autopilot mistake.
Maritime NZ chief executive Kirstie Hewlett said the two charges filed under the Health and Safety at Work Act related to failures by KiwiRail to keep crew and passengers safe while on board.
"This was a complex incident and important investigation given it focused on KiwiRail bringing in new systems to older vessels and broader safety management."
Hewlett said Maritime NZ looked at systems, policies, procedures and culture within KiwiRail with regard to the grounding.
Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy said due to the charges being before the courts they could not comment on them.
Roy said since the grounding the Cook Strait ferry service had made improvements to its processes and systems to avoid a repeat of this issue.
"We immediately undertook an internal investigation which resulted in nine recommendations - seven of those recommendations have been completed.
"This includes a full review of training processes especially for critical equipment, and reviews of our contractor management and risk management procedures."
He said since the breakdown Aratere had made more than 1100 crossings of Cook Strait, carrying over 133,000 passengers and 64,000 private and commercial vehicles.
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