The Honolulu prosecutor’s office is taking over the investigation into a fatal boating incident off Lanikai.
The prosecutor’s office received a report Wednesday from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources about the incident and will be reviewing it, said Dave Koga, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.
DLNR transferred the case about a month after Sri Shim, 59, was killed while free diving with his hanai son, Trey Albrecht. A boater in an orange Zodiac vessel struck Shim and Albrecht about a quarter-mile from Lanikai Point about
12:15 p.m. Jan. 9, according to an Emergency Services Department report obtained by environmental watchdog Carroll Cox.
Albrecht, 25, sustained cuts that severed tendons in his left arm. The EMS report said Shim’s body was recovered from the water at 3:03 p.m. Shim, a retired florist and skilled waterman, died of blunt force and propeller injury, according to the city Medical Examiner’s Office.
DLNR officers cited the boat operator, 41-year-old Kailua resident Sai Hansen, at 1:30 p.m. with operating a vehicle without a boater safety course certification. The citation was filed in court on Feb. 4.
Hansen, who is listed in state records as the 24-foot motorboat’s owner, failed to file a boating accident report within 48 hours as required by state law, a DLNR spokeswoman said.
State law requires boat operators to submit a written report when a boating accident results in a death. The confidential report is supposed to help with accident prevention, not for use as evidence in a criminal case, according to DLNR rules.
Operating a vessel without a safety course certificate and failure to immediately submit an accident report are each punishable with up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
On Wednesday, Cox posted photos on his Facebook page of the Zodiac at an Aloha gas station in Kailua on Tuesday and said community members were “livid” to see the boat in the community rather than impounded for the investigation.
Cox maintains that authorities should have immediately impounded the vessel to preserve any evidence in case the family wants an independent investigation.
State officials would not comment about the matter because of the ongoing investigation.
In another watercraft vessel fatality case, the vessel’s driver was charged with third-degree negligent homicide, a misdemeanor.
In 2012, Australian tourist Tyson Dagley pleaded no contest to third-degree negligent homicide after his rented personal watercraft hit and killed a 16-year-old girl on another personal watercraft at Keehi Lagoon. He was sentenced to time served — 12 days in jail — and allowed to pay restitution of $78,000 in $30 monthly installments to the victim’s family.
