Ship engineer died after getting trapped in door

A passenger ship's chief engineer died from crush injuries to his chest, abdomen and pelvis after being trapped in a watertight door for more than eight minutes, a coroner has found.

Chandima Weerasekera, 34, died in hospital on March 2009, 19 days after being crushed during a fire and emergency drill on the Australian-registered Oceanic Discoverer, while it was docked in Napier.

Coroner Christopher Devonport said a autopsy examination found Weerasekera's injuries resulted in his death from hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, which was when the brain was deprived of oxygen.

Devonport's findings followed the release of a Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) report last month.

He said he did not conduct a full coroner's inquest as the TAIC had already carried out an investigation and made recommendations.

TAIC found the watertight door that crushed Weerasekera was normally set in local-control mode, but at the time of the incident the door was in remote-close mode, operated by the ship's master.

During the drill, the master closed the door remotely from the bridge. Minutes later, Weerasekera opened the watertight door to the engine room, and became trapped as he passed through.

The report found the door had been set to close at twice the allowable speed, which would likely have contributed to the incident.

It had not been maintained and tested in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and did not meet the performance standards requirement by the International Maritime Organisation.

TAIC said it was possible the audible alarm that warned when the door was closing was not working at the time.

The door on the ship also had an unexplained design or maintenance peculiarity where it would begin to self close even when in the local-control mode, TAIC said.

Recommendations were made to the director of Maritime New Zealand and the chief executive of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, asking that they address the issue of watertight door safety and look at issues with the safety management system on board the Oceanic Discoverer.

A recommendation was also made to the manufacturer of the watertight doors to address possible design issues with the doors.

- © Fairfax NZ News