Easy Rider survivor recounts tragedy at trial

  • Breaking
  • 28/01/2014

The sole survivor of the Easy Rider tragedy has recounted the events following the sinking, as part of the trial of the boat's owner, Gloria Davis.

Dallas Reedy also praised the boat's captain, Rewai Karetai, whom he described as a first-class skipper.

The first time Mr Reedy told his story of the events of March 2012, he was in a hospital bed. Today he was on the stand in a courtroom and says he had no concerns about conditions on the night they set sail until a rogue wave hit just after midnight.

"I first heard the wave coming," he says. "The wave sounded like a jet roaring. It was an unnatural noise. It was the noise that made me look up."

He said the Easy Rider flipped quickly, and he clung to the hull as the boat sank. He then grabbed a floating petrol can, which he emptied and tied to himself as he battled through the 18 hours until he was rescued.

A Transport Accident Investigation Commission report last year found the Easy Rider was overloaded, but Mr Reedy doesn't believe it was anything out of the ordinary.

"With the muttonbirders going over to the island, I thought the load was nothing other than normal that I'd seen in other boats."

He wasn't aware at the time Mr Karetai didn't hold a skipper's certificate, but says nothing about his seamanship caused concern.

"I thought he was a first-class fisherman, first-class skipper – that was my assumption. I would have sailed with him anywhere."

And he was firm under cross examination by Mr Karetai's widow, Davis, who's defending herself against charges as the vessel's owner.

"Dallas, if you had thought it was overloaded and unsafe before departure, would you have got on?" she asked, to which Mr Reedy simply answered "no".

The prosecution expects to wrap up its case against Davis tomorrow.

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source: newshub archive