Sweden arrests cargo ship master after fatal collision off Tjorn
Swedish prosecutors have arrested the master of a Norwegian-flagged cargo ship on suspicion of causing death by negligence, after a collision off the country's west coast that killed a woman and a child. The 90-metre, 5,300 deadweight tonne Misje Verde collided with a recreational motorboat of seven to eight metres in the late evening of 28 July, south of Hakefjord off Tjorn, near Rortangen in Kungalv municipality.
Four people were aboard the motorboat, two adults and two children. It sank in around 20 metres of water. A woman and a child, reported as a mother and her daughter, died. A man and a second child survived and were taken to hospital in stable condition. The master was arrested on the evening of 30 July on suspicion of causing another's death and of negligence in maritime traffic.
The custody decision turned on practicalities rather than the strength of the case. Prosecutor James von Reis said he had arrested the captain partly on grounds of flight risk because the master lives in a country outside the Nordic region and the European Union, with the risk of influencing witnesses cited as the second ground. A formal indictment decision is required by 14 August. The master's name has not been released; he is a Russian citizen, as is the entire seven-person crew.
A significant complication is that a Swedish pilot was on the bridge alongside the master at the time, and is reported to have noticed nothing during the accident. The division of responsibility between master and pilot is one of the central questions prosecutors have said they are examining, alongside weather conditions, the rules of the road, lookout, the responsibilities of an overtaking vessel, speed reduction, sound signals, radar settings and electronic charts, and the conduct of the rescue.
The accident investigation board secured the ship's voyage data recorder, including the possibility of bridge audio, and the seizure of the vessel was lifted on the evening of 31 July once that was done, allowing her to sail. The company's chief executive, Roald Misje, confirmed the crew's nationality. Collisions between commercial ships and small pleasure craft in coastal waters are a persistent category of fatal accident, and they turn almost entirely on lookout and on whether the small vessel was ever detected.
