Greg Amos/Staff Writer/i>
A week-long coroner's inquest is revealing more than just terrible weather behind a fatal boat crash that killed 51-year-old Merrill "Spooner" Dixon near Deserted Bay in the upper reaches of Jervis Inlet almost a year and a half ago.The fact-finding inquiry transformed one of Sechelt's provincial court rooms into Coroner's Court this week, where the jury and public learned alcohol, speed and lack of safety equipment training all played a role in the Tsuadi Forest Products crew boat smashing into the rocks around midnight on March 21, 2007.
Detailed testimony came from witnesses Wayne Joe, his son Tyrone Joe, and Danny Paul, the three men who survived the crash aboard the vessel, and from Audrey Joe Santiago, the logging camp manager. All agreed the day began with clear weather, before deteriorating in the late afternoon into a sudden blizzard, followed by a stormy, chaotic night.
In the morning, Danny Paul was asked to take a sidewinder (a small boat used for log booming) from Egmont to the camp. Delays were incured when Paul was told to pick up a float en route, and by late afternoon, found himself fighting the cold weather and an ebb tide.
Wayne Joe made a run to assist him, saw Paul was having trouble running his sidewinder straight, and told the court he could tell Paul was taking medication to deal with the effects of vertigo -a claim Paul repeatedly denied in court. Joe decided someone else would have to take over from Paul, and drove back to the camp to pick up his son, Tyrone. Santiago (Wayne's sister, and Tyrone's aunt) said that's when Dixon got involved. Dixon, employed by the Sechelt Indian Band as camp watchman, was relaxing and drinking rum in his cabin during the day, and was "very happy," Santiago said. He insisted on joining Tyrone on the trip to check on Paul, and Santiago recalled telling him not to go as the two men walked down to the dock.
"I hollered at him, told him not to go," said Santiago in court. "It started snowing and blowing really hard at the same time."
Dixon continued to ignore her, and Wayne Joe allowed his son and Dixon to board the crew boat before heading out to check on Paul. According to their testimony, Wayne and Tyrone Joe both consumed a beer on the way back out. When they found Paul, he fell in the frigid water as they tried to get him aboard their boat. Though Wayne and Tyrone Joe testified Paul had a life jacket on, Paul insisted he hadn't worn one that day.
His sidewinder, which had no automatic shut off, kept going as the men pulled Paul aboard, and immediately took him below deck, where they took clothes off the near hypothermic Paul and laid next to him on the heater trying to warm him up. Dixon took the wheel at that point.
The men tried to get back to the camp, but had a hard time locating it. Santiago turned on all the camp lights, but they couldn't see it through the dark sky. The boat was being driven only by sight, with the aid of a headlight. According to Const. Chris Pillsworth from the RCMP's West Coast Marine Services, wires to the boat's radar arch and to the spotlights were not connected before the crash. The onboard radar was stuck in the setup mode, and a clutter of old tracklogs rendered the boat's global positioning system (GPS) map screen useless for navigation since "it was impossible to see the shoreline," said Pillsworth. Aboard the boat, an argument between Wayne and Tyrone Joe over which route they should take elevated into a shoving match.
Santiago knew the men were in trouble, but couldn't raise anyone on VHF channels and had no success with the satellite phone. She was also communicating with Dixon by VHF radio at the time, and recalls him trying to lighten the mood by singing Don't Worry, Be Happy, into the radio. Because of the rough waters, Wayne Joe told her the boat would capsize if they stopped. Joe recalled telling Dixon to "slow down or we're going to have an accident." Shortly after, the boat slammed into the shore.
Dixon died instantly of an occipital dislocation, said forensic pathologist Charles Lee, who performed the autopsy on Dixon two days after the crash. He also determined Dixon's blood-alcohol content was 0.14 per cent -almost twice the legal limit - at the time of the crash.
Lee concluded that Dixon's blood-alcohol content several hours before the crash had been 0.23 per cent, a level which Lee estimated would have required 10 drinks in a short time span for Dixon.
Greg Gray, with High Tide Water Taxi, remembers the night as being "darker than dark." He received a call about a vessel adrift at 11:30 p.m., but didn't pursue it until 12:30 a.m., when he heard the vessel had crashed.
Unable to see through the heavy snow, he passed the crash location on his way up, about 1.5 kilometres to the west. In the meantime, Tyrone Joe awoke after the crash with only minor injuries. He found his father had a broken jaw and broken hip, Paul had head injuries, and determined Dixon was dead after checking his pulse. He found the VHF radio and called for help. Because Gray's water taxi was just back from repairs, his radio antennae were folded down, making it impossible for him to hear Joe's calls. Joe was able to get a hold of Santiago, who then dialed the Coast Guard on another radio, and held the two phones together so Joe could talk directly with a dispatcher.
Through Santiago, Gray received the crash site location that Joe garnered from the GPS. After searching for about half an hour, he heard Tyrone Joe whistling at him, and located the crew boat at 2:30 a.m.
"When I finally did hear Tyrone, I looked over and could see the green glow of the radar screen," Gray said. Gray described finding the boat sitting on shore at a 45-degree angle with its stern out of the water. Pillsworth noted the forensic investigation of the crash showed the boat had been travelling at 25 to 30 knots at the time of impact. After hitting a cliff wall initially, the boat made two more impacts as it skipped up a rocky beach, travelling a total of 36 metres before coming to rest.
Joe and Gray loaded the men into the water taxi to take them back to Deserted Bay, where rescue craft were gathering. Both a helicopter and hovercraft arrived at about 3:45 a.m. A call by Coast Guard co-ordinator Andy Howell brought in a hovercraft from beyond its normal area of service.
That call turned out to be a good one, as the helicopter was unable to fly through the severe weather. The three injured men were then loaded aboard the hovercraft and taken to Vancouver General Hospital, where they arrived at about 7:30 a.m. Presiding coroner Tom Pawlowski allowed the coroner's counsel, a WorkSafe BC lawyer, and the jurors to ask question of each witness, and gave each witness an opportunity to recommend measures that could improve safety in similar circumstances for commercial marine traffic. While suggestions included keeping satellite phones on board vessels, and installing more radio repeaters to allow for better functioning of VHF radios, Howell said he believes better education is the key.
"I don't think people are aware of how nasty things can be out there," he said, adding more safety courses for commercial operators would help. Both legal counsels asked those aboard the vessel what qualifications and equipment training they had taken, possibly driving at recommendations for the jury to pursue. The jury is expected to issue its recommendations, today (Friday) Aug. 15.
