The owner of a boat that sank in 2013 should have ensured it was seaworthy, the procurator fiscal told a fatal accident inquiry at Oban Sheriff Court.
During the final day of proceedings into the death of Scott MacAlister, aged 40, of Luing, the crown highlighted four precautions that could have prevented the death. Mr MacAlister was the skipper of the Speedwell, a boat owned by John Connell, which went down on April 25 2013, near Easdale. Procurator Fiscal David Glancy told Oban Sheriff Court: ‘The owner and master of the fishing vessel should have ensured the vessel was in a seaworthy condition. ‘A reasonable precaution would have been to do all that is necessary to ensure it was water tight.’
Mr Glancy’s second precaution was ‘the owner of the Speedwell ensuring there were life jackets on board the vessel’. ‘On the balance of probability, it is my submission that on April 25 there were no life jackets on board the fishing vessel Speedwell.’ Another precaution was if the deceased was wearing such a life jacket or personal floatation device.