An aquaculture company has pleaded guilty to four charges brought by Maritime New Zealand following a fatal boat accident in the Marlborough Sounds last year.
King Salmon workers Anton Lewis Perano and Troy Anthony Climo, both 38, of Blenheim, were killed when the company's 11-metre aluminium runabout collided with a moored ex-naval patrol vessel at Waikawa Bay, near Picton on June 24.
Four other staff members were also injured in the crash.
King Salmon pleaded guilty today to charges of failing to ensure the safety of staff, operating the boat without a current safe ship management certificate, allowing an employee to operate the boat without a local launch operator certificate and operating a ship in a way which caused unnecessary danger to people, the Marlborough Express reported.
The company is to be sentenced in Blenheim District Court on Wednesday.
