The Seat That Paralysed Her: What the Lundy Explorer Accident Tells Every Commercial RIB Skipper About Passenger Safety and the Front Third Rule

Ilfracombe, Devon — 7 June 2023

A 28-year-old passenger boarded Lundy Explorer, a certified 11m sea safari RIB, and moved forward to the port jockey seat — designed for two occupants but occupied by her alone, with no lumbar support. Two minutes after departure, the RIB crested a high wave and slammed into the next with significant force. She was thrown clear and wedged between the seat pedestal and sponson, fracturing her T12 vertebra and damaging her spinal cord. She has been paralysed from the waist down ever since.

A Briefing That Skipped the One Thing That Mattered

The pre-departure safety briefing covered lifejackets and emergency procedures, and told passengers to hold on because conditions would be bumpy. It did not cover correct seated posture, how to use handholds, or how to brace against shock loads — all specifically required by MGN 436(M+F) and the HSPV Code of Practice, which state inexperienced passengers cannot be expected to know how to brace without being told. Meanwhile the skipper, positioned at the aft helm near the vessel's centre of rotation, experienced far lower vertical motion than the bow and had no real-time data on the forces building at the front of the boat.

Recommended Actions

1. Install real-time vibration monitoring at the forward section, with a display visible to the helm (MAIB 2025/130)
2. Rewrite pre-departure briefings to explicitly cover posture, handhold use, bracing, and a passenger distress signal
3. Restrict single occupancy of twin jockey seats in anything beyond benign conditions
4. Document weather go/no-go parameters and a mid-voyage abort procedure as part of a written SMS

Human Element Analysis