An accused negligent boater whose young son and friend were killed in an accident off the Bulli coast last year was travelling too fast in the moments leading to the tragedy, a court has heard.
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An ongoing case in Wollongong Local Court centres on whether the speed the man drove the boat at - at night, in unfamiliar waters - constitutes negligence.
The man's five-year-old son and a 28-year-old male passenger were killed after a 5.5-metre borrowed runabout hit Peggy's Reef and capsized in darkness just before 6pm on June 6.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Port Kembla Water Police's officer in charge Sean Netting responded to a suggestion the south-western Sydney man "still would have hit" the reef if he was driving the boat at 10kmh instead of its estimated minimum speed on impact - more than 25kmh.
"I disagree," said Sgt Netting, who was recalled to work the night of the tragedy to spend five hours searching for those who were missing and later found deceased. "If you're slow enough - and 10kmh is maybe 6 knots - you would see and hear the waves breaking. The waves on that reef that night were crashing. There's no mistaking that. You would have seen them."
"So you're saying the speed was too fast to appreciate what was happening, until it was too late?" asked Magistrate Claire Girotto.
"Yes."
Sgt Netting said the man could have taken steps to avoid the collision.
"He had a chartplotter on his boat, which told him exactly where he was in relation to the land and the reef, and if that was used he could have safely navigated his way back to Bellambi boat ramp," he said.
But lawyers for the accused man suggested the device - a Lowrance HDS Carbon 9 Fish Finder and Chartplotter - was not capable of showing the presence of reef.
"I suggest to you that that particular fishfinder is a base model of its kind and that it would not show underwater hazards," defence barrister Derreck Drewett said.
"If you say so; I haven't had a look at that chartplotter myself, but most of them do," said Sgt Netting. "That's their whole purpose for being in a boat".
In an earlier written statement, Sgt Netting said the sea was slight, but with a powerful 2-3m swell producing large breaking waves on the reef, the night of the tragedy.
Data taken from the Fish Finder device showed the runabout was travelling at 35kmh at 5.52pm, in the moments before impact, and at 29.7kmh when it hit the reef.
The court heard expert evidence that the boat had a planing hull, so that it would rise up out of the water and skim across the surface once it reached a certain speed - usually between 18-25kmh, and that it was in the planing position on impact.
Under cross-examination, the sergeant agreed there had been "many" boating incidents at Peggy's, but disagreed that the spot could be marked with a buoy to warn "people who weren't locals".
"No mark would last there; the sea would destroy anything you put there, quickly," he said.
After examining the damaged boat, marine expert Nayland Aldridge estimated it had been travelling "in excess of 14 knots [25.93kms]" on impact. Damage also indicated the runabout had struck a rock reef "at speed, with no deflection or alteration of course" and indicated "that the vessel passed completely over the object without stopping".
The hearing continues on Thursday.
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