Container crane accident $6.7M

Press, 27 September 1989, Page 5

Container crane accident $6.7M

By

PAM MORTON

The 1985 container crane accident, which put the port of Lyttelton’s crane out of action for 13, months, cost the Lyttelton Harbour Board $6.7 million in lost income.

The figure was released yesterday at a meeting of the Harbour Board. Board members had called for a full report on the accident at the last meeting. The board’s secretary, Mr Tony Gemmill, said there was a substantial cost that was not insured. The unrecovered loss during the time the crane was out of action was $6.7 million. The multi-million dollar crane was toppled in an accident at the port on February 15, 1985, when the bow of the container ship Moreton Bay clipped one of the crane legs. The accident put the terminal out of action for several weeks until a temporary replacement crane was found to work cargo. It took 13 months for the crane to be restored to working order. A board member, Mr lan Howell, said the report revealed that the board had suffered a “completely unjustifiable and unnecessary” loss of more than $6 million. “There was no need whatsoever.

for such a loss.” Mr Howell said nearly two years before the accident he and other board members had pushed for adequate loss-of-revenue insurance. In mid-1984 the board took out loss-of-revenue insurance for six months, despite recommendations from some members that the insurance be extended to 18 months. Mr Howell said if board members had been directors of a public company the shareholders would, with some justification, be able to suggest they had acted in a negligent manner. He disputed the claim by Mr Gemmill that the cover arranged by the board was something of a forerunner in New Zealand. The Otago Harbour Board had loss-of-revenue cover from day one, he said. “I consider the word forerunner to be most inappropriate — it should be late starter, especially as loss-of-revenue has been available

for nearly 200 years, the first loss of revenue insurance claim being made unsuccessfully in 1797.” Mr Howell said the real tragedy was that an additional debt of more than $6 million was being carried by the Lyttleton Port Company. “On interest, costs it is probably lowering the company’s profit about $1 million a year.” Captain Andy Anderson said Mr Howell was looking at the situation as if the board knocked over a container crane every week. “This was a one in a million chance. I don’t consider the insurance taken out was unreasonable in the circumstances.” The chairman of the board, Mr George Wright, said the decision made at the time was made on all the evidence available to the board. Mr Howell said if the advice and recommendations of some board members had been acted on there would not have been an uninsured loss of more than $6 million.