運航会社と桂田社長を提訴　遺族ら２９人、１５億円賠償請求―知床観光船事故・札幌地裁

　北海道・知床半島沖で死者・行方不明者２６人を出した観光船「ＫＡＺＵ　I（カズワン）」沈没事故で、乗客１４人の遺族ら２９人が３日、カズワンの運航会社「知床遊覧船」（斜里町）と桂田精一社長（６１）を相手取り、約１４億９９００万円の損害賠償を求める訴訟を札幌地裁に起こした。
　事故は２０２２年４月２３日午後に発生した。乗客と船長ら計２０人の死亡が確認され、乗客６人が行方不明のままとなっている。
　原告は訴状で、桂田社長の責任について、船首付近のハッチのふたが適切に閉鎖できない状態で、気象庁から出航を中止すべき基準を超えた風速や波高の予報が出ていたにもかかわらず、死亡した豊田徳幸船長＝当時（５４）＝と出航を決め事故を発生させたと主張。安全確保の基本的な注意義務に著しく違反していた船長を「指揮監督できる唯一の者だった」などと指摘した。（2024/07/03-21:03）

Bereaved families of victims of an accident caused by the Kazu I sightseeing tour boat off the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido in 2022 sued the boat's operator and its president for damages on Wednesday.
   In the lawsuit filed with Sapporo District Court, the plaintiffs, including the 29 family members of 14 passengers of the sunken boat, are seeking some 1,499 million yen in damages from Shiretoko Yuransen, the boat's operator based in the Hokkaido town of Shari, and its president, Seiichi Katsurada, 61.
   In the afternoon on April 23, 2022, the boat sank off the coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula in the eastern part of Hokkaido, leaving 20 passengers and crew members aboard dead and six others missing.
   In its final report released in September 2023, the Japan Transport Safety Board concluded that the direct cause of the sinking was flooding from a faulty hatch on the bow deck. The report pointed out that the boat's hull and its communications devices were not maintained sufficiently and that the operator had no safety management system.
   Last year, the parents of a then 27-year-old crew member who died in the accident filed a damages lawsuit with Tokyo District Court against the Japanese government and the government-commissioned Japan Craft Inspection Organization, which inspected the Kazu I boat before the accident, and also against Katsurada and his firm.