VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The second officer of a BC ferry that ran aground and sank seven years ago has testified he rushed to take charge of the bridge seconds after the ship crashed into an island.
Kevin Hilton says he was on a break when he heard a loud noise and felt the Queen of the North rock from the collision, and when he got to the bridge he saw a lot of red on the ship’s radar screen — red indicating land — and he knew immediately the ship had run aground.
He was testifying in the trial of Karl Lilgert, who’s accused of criminal negligence causing the deaths of two passengers in the sinking in 2006.
Hilton says when he arrived on the bridge he didn’t see anyone standing at either of the two navigation wheels, nor any charts out on a table for navigation purposes, and within about a minute he was radioing the ship’s position to marine traffic controllers.
Hilton says he later asked Lilgert what had happened, and Lilgert basically said he didn’t know.
A Transportation Safety Board report said the ship failed to make a critical course change just before the collision.
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I don’t care what really happened. I do care about abuse of public resources. We have a navigation officer, collecting a public salary, using radar equipment he believed, at the time (7 years ago), to be faulty? What? We have rioters three calendar years removed from prosecution, so that it is now entirely possible some witnesses have left the province or maybe died for goodness sake. But leadership starts at the top. The government house leader has a brother in White Rock who sued the local youth baseball association over a dispute between parents and volunteers. Apparently, this too is not an abuse of the courts for our political and legal glitterati. Our province is out of control.
amazing, so a man can be in a position of authority over another crew member who he was having an affair with. He lived in a tiny community with othe crew member who I’m sure knew of the relationship, how many times were they alone together on deck while the affair was on, forget whether he says the affair was over he’s already demonstrated that he can’t be honest and truthful as has she. Did anyone see a potential problem then.. Does BC Ferries have a policy regarding disclosure of crew relationships, if not it should and the union should support it. In the meantime I’m not buying any of what I’m hearing from the defence. This is shaping up to be another union versus government issue when the facts are that a man driving a boat and responsible for it’s navigation neglected his job and his testimony isn’t worth hearing as he will try to protect her and she will protect him.. If he was concerned about safety or equipment he should have quit before that night. I would be putting all of the crew on the stand and asking them about their knowledge of the affair and if they told the captain as the risk was there if they every time they were on deck alone together.
No Bull, agreed. What an (continuing) abuse of public resources? Whatever happened to shame in our culture? No surprise, if Christy Clark can complain politicians are too close with spinmeisters, while her premier’s office is loaded with taxpayer funded imagemakers, spindoctors, lickspittles and sycophants, in such a contemptuous world, anything is possible. Reality is what we’re made to make believe. How can the legal community get up in the morning?
what can you say. someone is responsible for this sad action and he/she needs to be striped of there certificates and do jail time!
Its like what the government, rcmp, oil company reps, or anyone in positions of authority do when they screw up. they give any excuse and for the most part, as long as your provide “some” excuse you’ll have some idiot or moron believe in your lie.
Sheer negligence – plain and simple.
I’ve been on boats since the age of 10 and learned how to read a radar at 11. Mr. Lilgert’s excuse that equipment was confusing and he wasn’t trained just doesn’t cut it. If a kid could do it, what’s Mr. Lilgert’s real excuse? It’s obvious to me that he was either asleep or pre-occupied with something / someone else.
Mr. Lilgert, do the right thing and tell the truth. You are an unbelievably selfish person to keep this going on this long..