Family of teen hurt in boating incident shocked at skipper's meagre penalty

A family are shocked at the low infringement fee dished out after a boating accident that led to serious facial injuries to their 13-year-old daughter.

Rike Raines and daughter Talia were in a rowing skiff with two others practising for a regatta in the Jacob's River estuary in Riverton when a jet boat hit their vessel.

It caused the rigger to fly into Talia's face, fracturing her jaw and dislodging her teeth, with one being sent up into her gums.

The other rowers weren't physically hurt but Rike has suffered from anxiety ever since.

"It's a parent's worst nightmare, being right there and you can't stop an accident from happening."

The resulting penalty was just $200 - the same infringement fee charged for not wearing a life jacket in some areas.

This is despite the investigation into the incident finding the skipper had breached local safety navigation rules.

He'd left the helm of the boat and had failed to keep a proper lookout. As Talia's dad Jeremy said "the rules are if you're in a powered vessel you have to give way to a non-powered vessel, you've got to look where you're going".

The family thought Maritime NZ would carry out the investigation. It did conduct the initial inquiries, but told Fair Go that after assessing the severity of the incident and the fact it involved local navigation rules, it passed the investigation onto Environment Southland.

The Raines' were in disbelief as the $200 penalty seemed no more than a slap on the wrist.

Rike said "how does that stop anyone from doing things like that? What does that teach our children?"

They believe if this kind of injury was caused in a car crash it would have been taken far more seriously so they wanted to understand why boating accidents weren't treated in the same way.

Interestingly, Environment Southland fully agreed the penalty was insufficient but said its hands were tied.

So Fair Go set about talking to Maritime NZ, the council and the Ministry of Transport to try to get clear answers on how the system worked and where responsibility lies.

It seemed there was some uncertainty as some of those authorities were unable to provide straightforward answers, admitting to processes being convoluted.

Maritime NZ did explain that it will take on investigations that hold high public interest and any accidents involving deaths, otherwise it is a joint decision with harbourmasters on a case-by-case basis looking at their "compliance model".

However, Fair Go understand that councils, like Maritime NZ, have the power to prosecute under the Maritime Transport Act, which has a maximum fine of $10,000 or a year in jail.

Environment Southland told Fair Go it didn't use those powers in this case because the incident didn't meet its threshold for a prosecution.

It specified that this was because it was the skipper's first offence, he cooperated with investigators at the scene, and in their view he is unlikely to offend again as it was a genuine mistake.

So this left the council with the ability to charge the skipper with breaching its navigation safety bylaws - with an infringement fee set at $200.

Paul Hulse, a manager at Environment Southland, said this case has prompted them to go before council and ask for a review of the fee structure.

Any change has to be approved at government level.

"One thing we can agree on is that the level of the infringement fee really didn't meet the seriousness of the incident and so, we believe this is justification to look at things going forward."

It is of little comfort to the family, but it's something.

Despite being disappointed that they received no apology from the skipper, they have no desire to name him as Riverton is a small community and they realise mistakes can be made.

Jeremy Raines said their reason for speaking out goes beyond this single incident. It's to raise awareness around boating safety and to ensure that in future cases "the punishment fits the crime".