Western Australian Consolidated Acts

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MARINE ACT 1982 - SECT 58B

58B .         Offence to take unsafe ship to sea

        (1)         A person shall not send or take a vessel to sea if the vessel is an unsafe ship.

        Penalty: $5 000.

        (2)         It is a defence in a prosecution for an offence against subsection (1) to show —

            (a)         that the person charged used all reasonable means to ensure that the vessel was not an unsafe ship; or

            (b)         that the sending or taking of the vessel to sea was, in the circumstances, reasonably justified for the purposes of protecting the vessel from imminent danger.

        (3)         The fact that an unsafe ship has been detained under section 61 is not a bar to proceedings under this section.

        (4)         A vessel is an unsafe ship for the purposes of this section if by reason of —

            (a)         the defective condition of a part of the vessel;

            (b)         the overloading or improper loading of the vessel; or

            (c)         the undermanning of the vessel,

                the vessel is unfit to proceed on its proposed voyage without risk of injury or danger to human life.

        (5)         No proceedings for an offence against subsection (1) shall be brought without the consent of the chief executive officer.

        [Section 58B inserted by No. 35 of 1990 s. 11.]