Frantic bid to save doomed Concrete Truck Operator.
Todd 10-02-2006
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Tuesday October 3, 2006

By Jarrod Booker
 
Chris Young was uneasy about the weight of two concrete trucks he was meant to follow on to a sea barge in the Marlborough Sounds.
 
He mentioned it to the skipper of the tug boat towing the barge that he felt one truck was too heavy, but took it no further and got on with his job driving his concrete pump truck.
 
"As I was reversing down to the barge, I heard a loud crash," Mr Young, 52, told a coroner's inquest in Blenheim yesterday.
 
"I couldn't see what the noise was, but I stopped my truck and jumped out to see what had happened."
 
The noise was the sound of the two concrete trucks tipping off the barge and into Picton Harbour. The drivers, Tom Phillips and Allan Tempero, were trapped inside the truck cabs and sank about 8m to the sea floor.
 
Mr Young rushed to the barge and joined the tug skipper, Mike Sullivan.
 
"We stood on the barge, hoping to see their heads pop up, but they didn't. We quickly decided we needed divers in a hurry, in case there was pockets of air trapped in the cab."
 
Mr Young, a trained scuba diver, rushed home to get his gear and dived into the sea, but it was too late.
 
"I could not find the trucks, as the water was so dirty. I surfaced and saw another diver, Willie Abel, surface. He had the body of one of the drivers with him, I think it was Allan.
 
"I swam over to Willie and then dove to the trucks again with him. We found the trucks and Willie pulled Tom out of the cab of his truck."
 
Mr Young said he was concerned about the uneven distribution of concrete between the two trucks, as Mr Tempero's eight-wheel truck was carrying 8 cu m and Mr Phillips' six-wheel truck only 5 cu m.
 
"I thought the tug skipper needed to know and he said it would be all right, and I left it at that. Weight is an important factor on barges."
 
Peter McManaway, managing director of the firm responsible for the tug and barge, told the inquest he did not know how heavy the trucks were.
 
He said he had been told they were the same as two trucks transported on the barge days earlier, so assumed they were up to 22 and 28 tonnes.
 
"We had no reason to believe they were any heavier. It is awkward - drivers often turn up with no idea of the weight. There's no weighbridge in Picton we can get access to."
 
The weight of the larger truck is debated, but believed to have been between 30 and 31 tonnes.
 
Asked if he had a responsibility to the two truck drivers as passengers on his barge, Mr McManaway said: "They are crew. They are part of the operation of the whole unit."
 
He confirmed that the timber surface of the ramp connecting from land to the barge was due to be replaced on the day of the drivers' deaths. "Another day wasn't going to hurt."
 
Sue Taylor, the partner of Tom Phillips, told the Herald that she and Mr Tempero's widow, Mary, wanted someone held accountable for the deaths, in August last year.
 
The inquest is expected to continue for up to three days. A Maritime New Zealand report into the deaths will be made public at the inquest.
 
Todd 10-02-2006
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Well we are really glad you’re ok Chris. We are really sorry for the loss of the other operators.  Be safe guys.
Todd 10-02-2006
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Christopher Young has told an inquest how he tried to save two concrete-truck drivers who tipped off a barge and drowned in Picton Harbour.

Thomas Phillips, 62, and Allan Tempero, 58, both died after their trucks tipped off the side of a barge on August 19 last year.

Blenheim Coroner Peter Radich began hearing evidence from 10 witnesses yesterday.

Young was the driver of a concrete pump truck that was also to drive onto the barge.

He described how Phillips had driven the smaller of the two trucks on first with no problems. Young then headed back to his own truck.

"I thought Allan was driving too fast onto the ramp ... I got to my truck and began reversing and I heard a large crash, I jumped out of my truck to see what had happened. I first saw no concrete trucks on the barge.

"I stood on the side of the barge and waited for heads to pop up but they didn't," Young said.

He drove to his Picton home to fetch his diving gear and returned to the scene.

Another diver had already found the body of Tempero and together the divers found Phillip's body.

Young, an employee of construction firm Crafar and Crouch, had arranged for the delivery of 13 cubic metres of concrete by barge to a building site in the Marlborough Sounds.

Because the concrete trucks could not legally carry that amount of concrete on the road, they were to top up their bowls with the extra two cubic metres in Picton before boarding.

Young said he was concerned all of the extra two cubic metres had gone into the larger vehicle instead of spreading the load between the two.

Earlier yesterday, the owner of McManaway Tug and Barge, Peter McManaway, came under intense cross-examination from Murray Hunt, the lawyer acting for the families of the two dead men.

McManaway said they did not check the weight of vehicles before loading them onto barges, but it was generally accepted that an eight-wheel and a six-wheel concrete truck would total up to 50 tonnes.

Hunt asked if both trucks had accidentally landed up on the same side of the barge whether it would capsize.

"Not capsize, but I would expect it to tip the trucks off," McManaway said.

When the ramp was built, McManaway said he believed from experience it would take up to 30 tonnes. He had also been told when he bought the barge it could take up to 100 tonnes but no comprehensive tests had been done.

McManaway said he had received advice in 1997 from an inspector that the barge was not required to be under a safe ship management regime. Neither the barge nor its towing vessel, the Rakanui, were certified to carry passengers.

McManaway said he had never considered the drivers of concrete trucks to be passengers. He believed they were crew because they were involved in the job.

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) has already decided not to lay charges.

The MNZ report contains a detailed investigation into the cause of the accident, but those details could not be publicly released until near the end of the inquest.