Sarah Bond Quad Bike Death - Prosecution Brought

from TVNZ

"A Waikato adventure tourism company is to face charges over the death of a British backpacker in a quad bike accident a year ago.
Sarah Katie Bond, 24, died when she lost control of her quad bike and fell 50m down a steep bank on the Te Anga farm, 30km west of Waitomo Caves, last August.
She was part of a group on a day trip with Waitomo Big Red at the time.
The company will next month defend two charges laid by the Department of Labour in Te Kuiti District Court over her death, the Weekend Herald reported.
One charge under the Health and Safety in Employment Act relates to the duty of people who control a workplace to take all practicable steps to ensure that people are not harmed. The second charge under the Machinery Act relates to the operation of an amusement device.
The adventure company has been run by father-and-daughter team Bill and Sarah Johnston for more than 10 years.
Mr Johnston declined to comment before the court case."

This prosecution is thought to be the seventh brought this year for an adventure activity related fatal accident (a total of 10 deaths)

The other cases relate to the death of British woman Emily Jordan who drowned whilst riverboarding, Catherine Peters who died in a fall from the Ballance Bridge Swing (Emily Jordan and Sarah Bond were British tourists) And six students and a teacher who drowned whilst canyoning in the Mangatepopo Gorge near Turangi.
For more on adventure tourism see Outdoor adventure in NZ

Clean, Green New Zealand. Keeping The Home Fires Burning, Air Pollution Warning Issued

This may be of interest to asthma suffers thinking that New Zealand's Clean, Green environment may provide some relief from their condition.

New Zealand has the world's second highest prevalence of asthma in the world (source Asthma and Respiratory Foundation) with hospital admission rates for asthma doubling in 30 years.

Some locations often fail air quality standards. For instance Mosgiel fails air quality PM10 standards about 8 times a year. See warning on Mosgiel pollution. The pollution is caused mainly by domestic heating appliances although one emission source in the north east of the town contributes about 7% to the total.

Other towns are said to have breached the national standard more frequently- Arrowtown has failed 29 times and Milton 19.

In June Environment Minister Nick Smith admitted that 10 NZ cities and towns were unlikely to meet air quality targets by the year 2013, he said that the overwhelming proportion of pollution is caused by home fires, and to a lesser extent vehicles.

About two third of New Zealanders live in locations where they are exposed to air pollution but it's a significant problem in some some areas. Approximately 1,100 people die prematurely in urban areas from air pollution every year

For the effects of this type of pollution and comments about the problem being compounded by 'scarily cold houses' see NZ's high winter death rate and burning wood to keep warm.

For today's posts see: latest posts