The findings from an investigation into a 2009 double jet-boating tragedy on the Kawarau River have been challenged by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
The council's regulatory and corporate general manager, Roger Taylor, yesterday said the investigation by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) questioned both national recreational jet-boating and the safety of commercial jet-boating.
Mr Taylor was commenting on the TAIC report into the near head-on collision between a private jet-boat and private jet-ski, on January 5, 2009 on the Kawarau River, near the end of Boyd Rd, which killed Anton Oskar Woitasek (34), project manager, of Lake Hayes, and Laurence Brett Singleton (51), contractor, of Queenstown.
The collision also left three others injured.
The report said the jet-boat travelled on the wrong side of the river.
Both craft travelled in an area where the speed limit of 5 knots within 200m of the shore had been uplifted through a council resolution.
However, neither craft was travelling at a safe speed as required by Maritime New Zealand's collision prevention rule, "because both craft were nearing a clump of willow trees which obstructed their view of any other craft, or persons permitted to be in that area at the time".
The report noted none of the three occupants of the jet-boat had been wearing life jackets.
"Life jackets save lives and would likely have prevented the deaths of the two jet-boat occupants in this case," it said.
Mr Taylor said the council was working on introducing a bylaw for the compulsory wearing of life jackets at the time of the accident, and wearing life jackets was now mandatory in the district.
The council did not accept criticism of the lifting of the 5 knot speed limit, nor the link made from an investigation into a recreational accident to findings regarding commercial operators, Mr Taylor said.
The report stated a commercial operator "routinely" did not travel at safe speeds on the Kawarau River in the region of the January 2009 accident, adding the information was based on "common knowledge".
"The council acknowledges there have been issues regarding a commercial operator on the Kawarau River which have been made public," Mr Taylor said.
"None of these incidents have resulted in any prosecution. We cannot act on anecdotal evidence, or hearsay."
When asked yesterday to comment on the report, Thunder Jet spokesman Duncan Storrier, of Ashburton, said the investigation involved two recreational craft, rather than commercial boats, in an incident that happened before Thunder Jet started operating.
"If prior to our operation there's been habits developed that aren't ideal, they'll have to be tidied up. Without question, we uphold the resource consent and maritime requirements.
"We try to take a relatively wide berth from the area [of the near-collision] and avoid passing through there at speed, but it's as much about distance from the willows or any blind corners than it is anything else."
The TAIC discussed how commercial jet-boat drivers, like recreational boat drivers, were not compelled to hold maritime documents requiring them to have demonstrated an in-depth understanding of collision-prevention rules.
However, Mr Storrier said commercial jet-boat drivers were subject to internal safe operational plans [SOP] and trained to understand those rules.
"That SOP is relevant to the operator and the river ... Driver training has been left to the operators and the area doing it and it's still effectively governed because Maritime [New Zealand] sign off the SOP and in doing so check our driver training systems."
