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Pensioner crushed between cruise ship’s pontoon and boat
A cruise passenger was crushed to death after falling between Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and a boat after returning from a day trip, an inquest has heard.
Disabled former teacher, Mary Atherton, 75, was on a world cruise in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea when the swell created a gap as she was stepping to the boarding platform and she fell into the water.
She was returning from a tourist attraction in Cambodia and was crushed between the tender boat and the pontoon on April 1.
Cunard said at the time that crew members had jumped in to try and rescue her.
Andrew Allen, a yacht owner and fellow passenger on the cruise last April, told Preston coroner’s court there were no safety warnings from the crew before the holidaymakers disembarked from the tender, reports the Daily Mail.
He said: "I was expecting a rope to be pulled in and tied round a cleat. I was expecting it to be tight, not much gap, but there was a considerable gap and we were moving backwards and forwards."
Pathologist Dr Helen Stringfellow said Mrs Atherton suffered an extensive skull fracture and would have died instantly.
Mrs Atherton, from Penwortham, Lancashire, had told Cunard she had mobility problems at the time of booking 12 months earlier, the court heard.
She suffered from osteoarthritis, Meniere’s disease – which affects balance – and one of her toes had been amputated.
The inquest continues.
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