“We were laughing a bit at the time but when he came back on the ferry he said it was the scariest experience of his life”.
Video and witness reports have emerged showing the moments a teenager was thrown from the deck of the new Manly Ferry ‘Clontarf’ on the weekend.
Police confirmed to Manly Observer late Saturday that a 19-year-old man went overboard at 7.30pm, 2 April. See our previous report here.
Since then, we have located footage from the incident and spoken to the fall-victim’s friend. We have agreed to protect the privacy of those involved by not naming them in full.
His friend recalls,
“So we were jumping with a swell [on the ferry] and then there was this massive wave, any way he went fully vertical and then fell back on his back on the side of the boat and fell in. He landed right near the engine propeller and then he was out there for about 15 minutes,” the friend and witness said.
“He said that something hit him in the water as well he’s got a massive bruise on his leg from something that hit him. He used his phone torch and he saw a bunch of sh*t in the water, debris. Then he was just exhausted…”
Police confirmed the boy was given a tracking device and life jacket and brought back onto the vessel. Water police met him at Circular Quay and gave him a blanket. He is reportedly in good health.
“He went out afterwards. He just went home got changed into dry clothes. He came out afterwards and went partying so it ended up being a f*cking good night and memory.”
The incident occurred about 200 metres from North Head.
Transdev, the operator of the newly launched Emerald Gen 2 ferry which has been unwelcome from campaigners for saving the larger Freshwater ferries, said an investigation of the circumstances of the incident had been initiated.
