Helsinki harbour's Allas Sea Pool has filed a lawsuit against Baltic ferry firm Viking Line to recoup damages caused by one of the company's ships that collided into its facilities last winter.
On January 12, an onboard power outage caused the MS Gabriella to drift into the pier, slowly colliding into a wall and the adjacent pool facility, but Viking Line has denied liability for the collision.
The incident has cost Allas Sea Pool nearly three million euros in financial losses and damage, the firm's chair, Raoul Grünstein, said in a press release.
"We consider it utterly incomprehensible that a large company like Viking Line, which also emphasises safety and responsibility, would not be responsible for the damage caused by their ship drifting out of control and colliding in Helsinki's narrow harbour," he said in the release.
In its list of damages, the company said it paid for the construction of temporary sauna facilities and around 18 months of lost income due to the required renovation work.
According to the pool facility's attorney, Teemu Taxell, the lawsuit is based on provisions found in Finland's Water Act.
"In practice, Viking Line is liable for all the damage caused if they are deemed to have acted negligently," Taxell explained.
But Viking Line's CEO, Jan Hanses, said the firm is not liable for damage caused, due to maritime law precedent.
For the firm to be liable, according to Hanses, "the damage would need to have been caused by error or negligence."
In February 2022, Hanses told Helsinki District Court that the ship's captain would not have been able to prevent the accident.
Viking Line Gabriella's captain, Mikael Mannerström, also told the court that using the ship's emergency braking system was not an option because doing so would make steering the ferry impossible, and would likely have led to an even more dangerous situation.
Finland's Safety Investigation Authority found the collision was caused by the ship's bow thruster stopping due to an overload, resulting in disruption of the ship's electrical system and loss of manoeuvrability.
Windy conditions had also pushed a good deal of sea ice into the harbour area, which made it difficult to manoeuvre the ship.
The City of Helsinki owns the pier and is also considering legal action in relation to the accident.
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