
Safety reports
Learning the lessons from marine incidents
The safety reports below are summaries of marine incidents that actually occurred in Queensland. The safety reports highlight the lessons to be learnt from the incident. The cases presented here are representative only, and have been selected for the learning points that may benefit mariners confronted with similar circumstances.
The offence of failing to report a marine incident carries a maximum penalty of A$3000, if convicted by a court, or A$225 for an on-the-spot marine infringement notice.
A marine incident is an event generally including damage to your boat and or another boat or danger of personal injury. More common incidents include collisions, groundings, capsize, fires and swamping.
For easy reference, the safety reports have been classified according to the type of ship that was involved in the marine incident.
Recreational ship incidents - 2008
Recreational ship incidents - 2007
Recreational ship incidents - 2006
- Wanted: a good lookout (PDF**, 40KB)
- The reach around (PDF**, 39KB)
- Personal floatation devices - it's not a life saver unless you are wearing it! (PDF**, 47KB)
- A cheap fix may cost you (PDF**, 48KB)
- Be careful coming up for air! (PDF**, 49KB)
Commercial ship incidents - 2006
- Spotter saves skier (PDF**, 40KB)
- King of the world! (PDF**, 42KB)
- Look before you leap! (PDF**, 47KB)
Fishing ship incidents - 2006
Recreational ship incidents - 2005
- What's that noise (PDF**, 31KB)
- Yacht fire ends in tragedy (PDF**, 31KB)
- Bar beaches boat (PDF**, 27KB)
- Tea or coffee anyone? (PDF**, 14KB)
- Who checked the bungs, not me? (PDF**, 28KB)
- Slingshot exit technique turns bad (PDF**, 28KB)
- David v Goliath (PDF**, 28KB)
- The case of the woeful navigator (PDF**, 28KB)
Commercial ship incidents - 2005
- Sailing into trouble (PDF**, 28KB)
- Engine bites skipper (PDF**, 27KB)
- Fire! Fire! Fire! (PDF**, 45KB)
- I know boats (PDF**, 44KB)
- Nasty whiplash (PDF**, 34KB)
Fishing ship incidents - 2005
Recreational ship incidents - 2004
- Jet skis don't have brakes (PDF**, 82KB)
- The hatch's father wasn't made of glass you know (PDF**, 81KB)
- Exciting night 'out' for kiwis (PDF**, 88KB)
- A painful lesson (PDF**, 81KB)
- Noosa bar strikes again (PDF**, 76KB)
- Holiday fun - not! (PDF**, 130KB)
- Tube of terror! (PDF**, 130KB)
- Unlicensed rider (PDF**, 127KB)
- Noosa bar claims another (PDF**, 130KB)
- Casual lookout = rammed runabout (PDF**, 128KB)
- Night-time bingle on the bay (PDF**, 232KB)
- Lights, anchor, action! (PDF**, 129KB)
- Lifejackets - not just ornaments! (PDF**, 117KB)
- Holy smoke! (PDF**, 57KB)
- How fun was that? (PDF**, 57KB)
- It's not my fault! (PDF**, 57KB)
- Interstate visitor runs his vessel aground (PDF**, 42KB)
- Crewman has thumb severed by anchor line (PDF**, 62KB)
- Weather sense and common sense (PDF**, 62KB)
- Lookout? (PDF**, 89KB)
- Vessel capsize during bar crossing (PDF**, 51KB)
- Man overboard after home-made alterations (PDF**, 50KB)
- Vessel capsize due to combination of wind and sea (PDF**, 51KB)
- Vessel grounds due to poor passage planning (PDF**, 51KB)
Commercial ship incidents 2004
- Hey, that sounds like....crunch! (PDF**, 79KB)
- Port turn high speed = crash (PDF**, 113KB)
- A swim too far (PDF**, 113KB)
- Right between the hulls - cooool! (PDF**, 116KB)
- Unsafe speed results in fatality (PDF**, 118KB)
- Inebriation leads to incapacitation (PDF**, 116KB)
- Charter yacht nearly charred (PDF**, 219KB)
- Who's on watch? The autopilot? (PDF**, 117KB)
- Know, know, know your rules (PDF**, 79KB)
- Complacency crushes coral (PDF**, 52KB)
- Double trouble (PDF**, 86KB)
- Bare boat scrapes reef bare (PDF**, 61KB)
- More thrills than expected (PDF**, 63KB)
- Dubious bar dunks divers (PDF**, 86KB)
- Sound anchor watch saves ship (PDF**, 63KB)
- Lead lights assist grounding (PDF**, 62KB)
- Overtaking ferry causes close quarters situation (PDF**, 86KB)
- Night collision on Brisbane River (PDF**, 63KB)
- Costly short cut (PDF**, 62KB)
- Landing barge collides with navigation beacon (PDF**, 51KB)
- Poorly secured ferry collides with dinghy (PDF**, 50KB)
- Vessel fire in Moreton Bay (PDF**, 51KB)
- Near miss between river ferry and rowing skull (PDF**, 51KB)
Fishing ship incidents - 2004
- Fishing danger (PDF**, 108KB)
- Fatal clash on the reef (PDF**, 131KB)
- Dozy damage (PDF**, 132KB)
- Lousy lagging leads to loss (PDF**, 57KB)
- Slippery catch causes capsize (PDF**, 57KB)
- Fishing in narrow channels (PDF**, 57KB)
- Fishing dory goes missing (PDF**, 51KB)
- Late turns and lost leads (PDF**, 219KB)
- Tanker grounding in Townsville (PDF**, 99KB)
- Ro/ro ship grounds after total electrical failure (PDF**, 98KB)
Disclaimer
Safety reports are prepared by the Investigations Unit, Executive Services and Compliance Branch, Maritime Safety Queensland. Safety reports are intended to draw the attention of the marine community to the lessons arising out of investigations into marine accidents. Consequently, the reports do not assign fault or blame nor do they determine liability.
The contents of these reports are subject or alteration or correction. Extracts can be published without specific permission providing the source is duly acknowledged.
**While this department has taken every possible precaution with the creation of these files, they are downloaded and used at your own risk. Adobe Reader is required to open and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files and is free to download from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Various tools to enable access to these files for people using a screen reader can be found at http://access.adobe.com. Further information is available from our "Help with downloading, reading and printing PDF" web page.
Last updated 21 April 2008

