Driver ‘advised against trip’

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 1

Driver ‘advised against trip’

PA Wellington The Railways Corporation said yesterday that the first officer of the inter-island ferry Aramoana at first refused to carry the float in which three horses died during a stormy Cook Strait crossing on Sunday. The champion raeemare, Powley, valued at more than $500,000, was one of the horses that died on the voyage. The corporation said yesterday it had signed statements from three ferry officers saying that the driver of the horse float had been advised not to make the journey because of the rough seas. A statement by the first officer, given to the ferry’s master, Captain J. W. Brew, said: “The foreman in Wellington informed me a horse float wanted to travel and he

had already told the driver that the seas would be rough and therefore he would be advised not to travel. I told the foreman the weather would certainly be bad and that I would not take the horse float. “The foreman later came back to me and said that in spite of our advice the driver in charge of the horse float was very keen to travel and considered his horses would be all right.” Approached in Blenheim last evening the horse float’s driver, Mr Grant McLean, said he had never been told just how rough the conditions were in Cook Strait. Asked if ferry officers had advised against him making the trip, he replied, “They never said not to.” Earlier report, page 33