fbpx
Log in

Login to your account

Username *
Password *
Remember Me

Create an account

Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.
Name *
Username *
Password *
Verify password *
Email *
Verify email *
Captcha *

Carvoeiro swimmer who died in tourist boat collision - report blames speed

INEM125The death last August of a woman from Belarus, mown down by an accellerating tourist boat as it left a cave at Padre Vincente beach, Carvoeiro, was due to unnecessary speed ​​and lack of warning signals.
 
The tourist boat was manned by only one crew member and as the boat sped away from shore, in the direction of the sun, its nose lifted making adequate forward vision impossible.
 
The boat failed to sound a warning as it left the cave and hit the woman whose body was retrieved by her husband who swam her back to shore. She was declared dead at the scene by an emergency medical team.
 
The boat had 12 tourists on board who all witnessed the tragedy, one of the holidaymakers said he had given repeated warnings to the skipper to “slow down.”
 
According to the Maritime Accident Investigation Office report, the 7-metre Róisín Alvor only had to have a helmsman, something the Maritime Authority will now assess as it is impossible to drive the boat and keep an adequate forward lookout at the same time.
 
The report states that the boat’s speed was "superior to what was strictly necessary for the government of the vessel" and the boat was accelerating after it left the cave, reaching an estimated 12 knots (22 km / h) when it hit the swimmer.
 
The vessel also was not yet perpendicular to the coastline, as the rules dictate, as it accelerated away from the cave at  Parde Vincente beach, also known as Praia do Castelo beach.
 
The beach was not a supervised ‘concession’ beach, had it been the boat would not have been allowed closer than 300 metres to the shore.
 
The report in Correio da Manhã will trigger questions of corporate and personal culpability, tourist safety and the current laws that allow tourist boats to be commanded by one person. 

 

 

Pin It

Comments  

+1 #7 Bolanzi 2018-08-15 18:20
F*** all authorities implicated any health and safety standards. You haven’t got a notion the guy was speeding and didn’t abide the few rules they have. So less of your stupidity you don’t know what your talking about
0 #6 Tomás Metcalfe 2018-02-19 14:05
I remember when these boats were traditional wooden boats that would trundle along respectfully at 5kph. If people want to be thrown about, they can go to Slide & Splash, or 300 m out to sea. It's completely unnecessary to drive in a manner that is both dangerous to those in the boat and those in the water.
0 #5 Quarteira Paul 2018-02-18 13:25
Mr Jack Reacher is talking rubbish, in any profession you get cowboys, most of the skippers are professionals.
+1 #4 Joe K 2018-02-18 12:40
Years back on a dive near the grottos off Luz
The dive boat had the "divers warning flag" up & sight seeing boats took no notice at all, a German diver who was a tourist , nearly got decapitated by a boat that was speeding back to Lagos to pick up a fresh load off tourist , the owner off the Dive Cº made a formal complaint to the Lagos Port Captain , he never got any feedback at all :sad:
0 #3 dw 2018-02-14 23:21
As usual the root of the problem is money, money, money, money...
0 #2 Natasha Bund 2018-02-13 12:47
It might, but that's not just because of the tourist boats, it is also because of tourists simply not being well enough aware of what is allowed/ what is advised and what is safe. You need to keep your eyes peeled when away from the safety of 'concession beaches'. Concession beaches have safe corridors for swimmers, and corridors for boats coming in.... this poor woman was in a place where boats simply do not expect swimmers. That doesn't mean it was her fault, but she should have been aware that she was vulnerable, and that to swim in between boats coming and going was really not safe. There should possibly have been signs warning people who arrived at this little beach (?) I understand from the boat owner that the sun was at such an angle that "it was impossible to see the head of a person in the water". He himself said the horror "will happen again", no "might" about it. People need to be made aware of how to protect themselves... stay AWAY from areas with pleasure boats zipping about. August is just too busy for their not to be mistakes.
+1 #1 Jack Reacher 2018-02-11 23:17
All those grotto tour boat skippers are a bunch of incompetent cowboys unfit to drive a boat after all night drinking binges in Albufeira. It will happen again in the summer of 2018.

You must be a registered user to make comments.
Please register here to post your comments.