Fish farm boat crash driver suspected of being over alcohol limit

A sea farer who drove his motorboat into a salmon pen in Norway may have been over the boat-driving alcohol limit, police suspect.

Police prosecutor Marie Nyland today told Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, that a criminal case has been opened following the incident at Grieg Seafood Rogaland’s Store Teistholmen Ø farm in Sandnes municipality.

“It is suspected that the person in question has driven a boat with a higher blood alcohol level than is permitted for boating, which is a blood-alcohol content of 0.08%,” said Nyland.

“A blood sample was taken, but it was taken a few hours later than the incident is said to have occurred. An expert report must therefore be obtained which will look at the back calculation, to say what the degree of influence was when he steered the boat.”

Further questioning

According to the prosecutor, the police have questioned the boat driver once, and they are now waiting for the expert report before carrying out further questioning.

“I cannot comment on what he has explained in the interrogation, with regard to the ongoing investigation,” said Nyland.

The incident occurred at around midnight on Sunday, April 28. In the case reported in Kyst.no last week, Grieg stated that it was not notified before its employees came to work on Monday, and thus found an empty boat in the cage, prompting a search for potential accident victims. It said the police’s explanation for why the company had not been notified was that it was difficult to know who owned the site in the middle of the night.

“It was the national rescue coordination service (Hovedredningssentralen) that led the mission, and you must therefore contact them if you have more questions about it,” said Nyland.

The rescue service has said that it will answer questions Kyst.no has sent in connection with the case.