Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au

Aaron Bunch
Overhaul trawler safety, coroner urged

A coroner examining the deaths of eight fishermen on two trawlers off Queensland has been urged to recommend they carry better safety gear.

March 28, 2019

Commercial fishing boats must have better safety gear to prevent more deaths at sea, an inquest into the loss of eight trawler men has been told.

Six men died in 2017 when the FV Dianne rolled off the town of 1770 in 2017. Two others perished when the FV Cassandra went down near Fraser Island the previous year.

At an inquest into their deaths, coroner David O’Connell was urged on Thursday to recommend better safety measures for commercial fishing vessels.

Barrister Matthew Holmes, acting for lost Dianne crewman Adam Hoffman, said life jackets with personal locator beacons, survival equipment and lighting that would activate in an emergency should be considered.

He also said life raft requirements must be reassessed, given rafts on both doomed vessels became entangled and failed to deploy when the boats rolled.

“There was something restricting those life rafts coming free from their cradles,” he told the hearing.

The crewmen on the Dianne were relaxing in their bunks when it began rolling to the port side on the evening of October 16, 2017.

Sole survivor Ruben McDornan earlier told the inquest that by the time he reached skipper Ben Leahy in the wheelhouse the boat was already upside down and flooding.

He was the only member of the crew to escape after he forced a door open against the rushing water and swam to the surface.

Mr Hoffman, 30, Eli Tonks, 39, Adam Bidner, 33, Zach Feeney, 28, Chris Sammut, 34, and Mr Leahy, 45, died despite the Dianne being fitted with life jackets, EPIRBs, grab bags and a life raft.

The bodies of Cassandra skipper Matt Roberts, 61, and his crewman David Chivers, 36, have never been found after the prawn trawler’s net hooked on the seafloor.

Wild seas prevented rescuers from reaching the crew, who were thought to have been in the cabin before the vessel went down.

The inquest in Gladstone continues.

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