Expert blames knot failure for accident

An essential knot which should have secured the mast of a sailing boat that crashed through the windscreen of an oncoming car fatally injuring a Shropshire teenager, must have come undone or not been tied at all, a court heard.

Hereford Crown Court was told by a boat rigging expert that the rope had slipped or not been tied securely to the mast as it was transported.

The loose mast pierced the windscreen of a Rover saloon car travelling in the opposite direction to 48-year-old Mark Tissiman, on a country road near Bewdley in June 2008.

It narrowly missed the driver but struck 19-year-old Sarah Louise James, of Highley. She later died at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham after suffering severe head injuries.

Tissiman, of Kidderminster Road, Bewdley, denies causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr John Thorn, a boat rigging expert, said a rope holding the mast in its cradle for the 13-mile journey between Chelmarsh Reservoir where Tissiman had been sailing, and his home in Bewdley was not long enough.

"The length of rope used to lash down the mast appears to be very short," he said.

He told the jury that the rope holding the thickest end of the mast would not be sufficient to secure it effectively.

He said the rope was also scuffed and frayed.

"This happens when it has been dragged along the ground," he added.

But Mr Simon Morgan, for Tissiman, challenged the claim.

He said the fraying could have occurred even before the boat was delivered to his client.

Mr Thorn also claimed that a strap securing the boat to its trolley was not tight enough.

The trolley had moved on its road base but the boat had not moved on its trolley, he said, adding that the strap was in a "very loose" condition and if it had travelled over 13 miles on bumpy roads it would not be surprising that the boat had moved.

He said: "I wouldn't tow a boat with a strap like that because the boat would bounce up and down."

Mr Morgan said: "There must have been extraordinary and most unusual force on the rope.

"If it had come undone the mast must have bounced within its yolk, but it swung out to the right and hit the car with extraordinary force."

The trial continues.