Boat firm to pay after back injury finding

Published on 08/02/2013 13:47

A FINANCE assistant who was sent by boat to carry out an inventory check at an island lighthouse has been awarded £21,500 in damages after hurting her back when the vessel was “banged down” by waves.

Rosemary Cairns said she was off work for 15 months
following the accident on her trip to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth.

Mrs Cairns, 55, sued her employer, the Northern Lighthouse Board, and the boat owner, Calypso Marine, of North Queensferry, at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Lord Drummond Young
yesterday ruled that both were liable, but ordered the boat firm to foot the bill after finding that the vessel was driven too fast and that a safety
briefing was “inadequate”.
Mrs Cairns, of Mountcastle Park, was hurt in October 2009 and told the court that the boat twice went up on the waves and “banged down”.

Lord Drummond Young said: “I think it is clear that the boat was driven continuously at a speed of about 17 to 18 knots, which was too fast for the conditions.”