5 killed, 9 hurt in Sydney boat collision

By ROHAN SULLIVAN
Associated Press Writer

A fishing trawler collided with an overloaded cabin cruiser that was on a night-time joyride in Sydney´s famous harbor Thursday, killing five young people and injuring nine, authorities said.

Four women and a man, all in their late teens or early 20s, died when the vessels collided in the dark shortly before 3 a.m., police and hospital officials said.

The U.S. consulate in Sydney said one of the victims was a U.S. national, but spokeswoman Alison Barnard said no further details would be released _ including whether the American was among the injured or dead _ until the person´s family had been notified.

All of the dead and injured were aboard the smaller boat, a 23-foot cruiser owned by a boat repair company that said it appeared to have been stolen for a trip.

Damage to the cruiser suggested it may have been rammed from behind by the trawler, a lobster boat heading out to sea, police said. However, police declined to speculate about the cause of the accident.

Deadly boat collisions in the harbor of Australia´s largest city are rare, and the accident drew comment from the prime minister and other top leaders.

"This is every parents´ nightmare," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Fairfax Radio. "I just am stunned by this."

Police said they would investigate why the cabin cruiser _ licensed to carry eight people _ was overcrowded and being used for social purposes at such an hour.

The crash occurred near Bradley´s Head in a favored sightseeing area of the harbor, home to Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge landmarks. Once a bustling commercial port, the harbor is now dominated by pleasure craft, passenger ferries and cruise ships.

Police Inspector Tony Bear said all 14 people aboard the smaller boat _ aged from 18 to 31 _ were thrown into the water, chilled by a recent cold snap.

Passing vessels began plucking victims from the water, and some of them were treated on a small wharf near the crash site before being rushed to hospital.

John McPherson, general manager of Sydney Ship Repair and Engineering which owns the cabin cruiser, said it was normally used as a mobile repair unit, and that it was not on company business at the time of the crash.

"It appears that somebody has decided that they are going to take our boat for a joyride and this horrible event has happened," McPherson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

He said the boat could not have safely carried 14 people, and cited alcohol and inexperience as possible factors in the crash.

The injured were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, one in critical condition, two in serious condition and the others with relatively minor injuries, said hospital spokesman Dr. Andrew Rochford.

The most recent fatal crash in Sydney Harbor was in March last year, when a passenger ferry plowed into a pleasure boat under the harbor bridge, killing three people. The most notorious was in 1927, when a mail steamer collided with a ferry, sinking the ferry and killing 40 people.