The Otago Daily Times has confirmed a Port Otago worker was at the wheel when the pricey used sports car crashed into a parked straddle carrier inside the Port Chalmers container terminal.
The car, which had been imported from Singapore for a Dunedin buyer, was understood to be badly damaged but potentially repairable - at significant cost.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket said yesterday the company had agreed a confidential settlement with the owner, but an internal investigation into the crash was ongoing.
Maritime Union Port Chalmers-Dunedin secretary Phil Adams said it was standard practice for Port Otago workers to remove vehicles from their containers and drive them to storage or inspection areas on the wharf.
The vehicle involved ''wasn't being taken for a spin'', but the worker's oversized boots might be to blame, he suggested.
''They get into these small cars with their big boots and everything else. We're not like the people who are driving them.''
Mr Plunket said it was the first crash of its type he was aware of at Port Otago, which handled about 50-60 imported vehicles each week.
The Porsche 911 had already been driven once on June 8, to be inspected by Ministry for Primary Industries staff, and was being moved again that day, to a temporary storage area, when the crash occurred.
The car hit a stationary straddle carrier.
The worker at the wheel of the Porsche escaped injury, he said.
The crash was one of two incidents at Port Otago's Port Chalmers wharf since the start of last month.
The Porsche crash was followed on July 1 by a more serious incident in which a 14m straddle carrier toppled.
The 26-year-old driver of the straddle carrier was seriously injured and remained in Dunedin Hospital, while a complex investigation into that incident continued, Mr Plunket said yesterday.
The separate investigation into the Porsche crash was likely to be concluded within days.
