Rally Driver To Blame: Coroner

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday July 8, 2003

A FORMER rally car driver was to blame for his own and his uncle's deaths in a speedboat accident on Lake Eildon, a Victorian coroner found yesterday.

Glenn Cuthbert, 39, and his uncle Graeme Cuthbert, 56, died while Glenn was taking his $90,000 Malibu inboard speedboat for a spin on September 8 last year.

Within 15 seconds of leaving the houseboat they were holidaying on, both men were seen in the water and the empty boat was running in tight circles around them at full throttle, the inquest heard.

The body of Graeme Cuthbert, who drowned, was pulled from the water by witnesses, but his nephew's body has never been found and he is also presumed drowned, Coroner Phil Byrne found.

Mr Byrne said he had ruled out the boat hitting a submerged object as the cause of the accident.

Instead, both men were thrown from the boat ``as a result of an extreme manoeuvre" performed by Glenn Cuthbert as he put his ``pride and joy through its paces", Mr Byrne said. He believed both men would have survived had they been wearing life jackets.

He has recommended legislating the mandatory wearing of life jackets aboard all recreational vessels, including on inland waters.

© 2003 Illawarra Mercury

Back to News Index | Back to Home