Ships' headings 'the key' to court's assessment of ferry disaster
Lawyer says trial of ferry captains hinges on determining what they could see before collision
The crux of a manslaughter trial of two captains involved in a ferry collision on National Day in 2012 will be in the court's assessment of the two vessels' heading, a defence lawyer said yesterday.
Barrister James Turner QC, for the captain of Hongkong Electric's Lamma IV, said: "If reasonably reliable heading value could be derived from available data, it would be more preferable to use that than radar-tracker course-over-ground data to assess sidelight visibility."
Heading is the direction that a boat's bow is pointing at any given time, while course over ground is the course that a boat is moving along relative to land.
Turner put his argument to Captain John Third, a prosecution witness, during his cross-examination, and the veteran mariner agreed. Third formed his opinions of which lights were shown to Lamma IV and Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry's Sea Smooth before the collision based on course-over-ground values rather than heading values.
Being grilled by Turner over the data he used in his report, the marine expert said: "This is a relatively simple collision case."
Earlier, the court heard that at about 20:18 on October 1, 2012, the heading of the Sea Smooth would have been showing to the Lamma IV. At about 20:19, the Lamma IV should have seen the red port sidelight of the Sea Smooth, while the Sea Smooth should have seen the green starboard light of the Lamma IV.