In 2006, the Kea was involved in a minor collision at the Auckland Ferry Terminal with the moored Starflyte. The accident was supposedly due to steering failure and the boat was given a major overhaul the following year. In 2011 the boat collided with another Fuller’s ferry, Harbour Cat, at Auckland ferry terminal. The Kea had broken down earlier in the day but had been cleared for service.
A report of today’s incident by the NZ Herald stated
Fifteen passengers are now believed to have been injured in a ferry crash at Devonport this morning, with six taken to hospital while medics assess the others at the scene.
Three ambulances raced to the Devonport wharf after the Seabus Kea crunched into it at about 11.10am, sending passengers flying off their seats and leaving a large hole in the vessel’s bow.
But St John said this afternoon that a bigger ambulance was joining them, to cope with a larger number of injuries than first thought…
Another report in Stuff.co.nz told of how visitors to NZ had been caught up in the incident, and that the Fuller’s Ferry appeared to be heading faster than usual in the wrong direction.
WIFE ‘BADLY SHAKEN’
An 84-year-old Melbourne man, who only wanted to be known as Don, spoke to Stuff as he waited on the wharf while his wife was being treated for her injuries aboard the boat. “She is pretty badly shaken up,” he said. “It was a very severe crack and quite unexpected.”
All the seating on the vessel was thrown forward by the crash, he said. “A lot of people were thrown around and a lot of them are very shaken up.”He said the sea was calm as they came into the wharf. “I don’t know what went wrong.”
Minutes later, Don’s wife was taken off the boat on a stretcher with a large, bloodied bandage on her head. Another man was also carried off the boat on a stretcher…
Bookshop owner Robyn Dormer saw the damage. “You should see it, it’s amazing. It’s kind of shocking.”
Emily said following the crash people in the terminal remained calm and there was a “perfunctory” announcement telling people where they could disembark and advising of changes to service.
Eye witness Michael Young said he was waiting for the ferry to Waiheke at Devonport when he heard a “loud bang.
Bookshop owner Robyn Dormer saw the damage.
“You should see it, it’s amazing. It’s kind of shocking.”
Emily said following the crash people in the terminal remained calm and there was a “perfunctory” announcement telling people where they could disembark and advising of changes to service.
Eye witness Michael Young said he was waiting for the ferry to Waiheke at Devonport when he heard a “loud bang. I was inside the ferry terminal at the very end waiting by the gates when I saw the ferry. It was supposed to go on the right hand side but they were coming into the left hand side, faster than usual,” he said. “They obviously went ‘oh look we’re coming into the wrong place‘, then they started turning at an angle. Then I heard a loud bang and I rushed to the window and they’d crashed into the pier…”
Passengers injured in ferry crash as unsecured plastic chairs hurled to floor
This information was published the day after the crash…
Unsecured seating is being blamed for the large number of passengers injured when an Auckland ferry hit the Victoria Wharf at Devonport yesterday, jolting many to the floor. “When it hit the wharf, all the seats went flying forward,” said a man sitting at the rear of the Kea’s enclosed main deck when the veteran Fullers ferry stuck a concrete pillar on the disused fishing wharf just after 11am with 61 passengers and three crew on board.
…The passenger said he remained securely seated in the crash but dozens of others in plastic chairs in the middle were hurled to the floor
“All the plastic ones aren’t bolted down – I think they must have them like that so they can take them out and wash down the floors.”
He said the Kea was heading to its normal landing at the Devonport wharf before “it hooked hard to the right and smacked into the opposite [Victoria] wharf“.
…Belmont woman Judy Rhodes suffered a sprained wrist and ankle, and whiplash.
“The seats were ripped out – they all came forward – I went flying off my seat and landed on the ground,” she said.
Auckland Council member and Devonport resident Chris Darby said he noticed different seating not bolted in when on the Kea last week.
Although he reported it to Auckland Transport only after hearing of yesterday’s crash, his experience of sailing a yacht from Auckland to Seattle had taught him to “keep things fixed down on a vessel”. source
The incident will be invested by Maritime New Zealand or the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, who will probably also carry out drug and alcohol testing on the ferry’s crew.
E2NZ.org 
[Deleted. Katatonic you were banned for trolling a year ago. The ban still stands.]
This page has been updated.