So far we are aware of at least 7 prosecutions that have been brought this year for 12 fatalities and one injury related to adventure tourism related activities in New Zealand. At present it is unclear if the number is so high because of an increase in the number of these types of fatalities, or whether it is indicative of a more hard line approach by the enforcement agencies in an effort to improve safety standards within the industry.
Cases year in court this year relate to the deaths or injuries of:
Paul Woods - A British general surgeon at Dunedin Hospital died when the jet boat he was a passenger in flipped after hitting a gravel bank in the Matukituki River. His partner Dr Leanne Tonney and her brother Dave were injured in the crash. The boat was privately owned.
Yan Wang - A Chinese tourist died when the jet boat she was a passenger in flipped at the confluence of the Shotover and Kawarau rivers. The company involved was 'Kawarau Jet'. 7 other people were injured.
Sarah Katie Bond - A British tourist who died from her injuries during a quad bike trek run by 'Waitomo Big Red' 30km west of Waitomo Caves last August.
Emily Jordan - A British tourist who drowned whilst riverboarding with 'Mad Dog River Boarding' on the Kawarau river. The company was fined NZ$66,000. (US$46,000)
Catherine Peters - A New Zealand university student who died from her injuries after falling from the Ballance Bridge Swing.
Six students and a teacher - Died in a canyoning exercise with the Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor Centre, the centre was fined NZ$44,000.
Rosemary Berry, a semi retired Australian tourist broke an arm and shoulder whilst skiing and sustained other injuries after she fell over an metal track left in the snow at the Cardrona Ski Resort. The company subsequently tried to appeal against its conviction of fines and costs totalling almost $60,000.
Showing posts with label Edmund Hillary Outdoors Pursuits Centre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edmund Hillary Outdoors Pursuits Centre. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Adventure Tourism Industry Safety
The death of 6 high schools students and their teacher on an outward bound course resulted in the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoors Centre being ordered to pay a $40,000 fine and $440,000 in reparations.
The tragic deaths stunned the nation when the school party drowned in a rapidly flooding gorge after warnings of heavy rain weren't acted upon.
Following the court case the Department of Labour urged the adventure tourism industry to look critically at its health and safety systems in light of the Mangatepopo canyon trekking tragedy. A lot should've been learned, but has it?
A lot has already been written about the tragedy on the net so I won't go over it again, I'll just point interested readers towards an excellent thread by Steve Howe on Backpacker blogs, from which the following snippet was taken
"We Americans and our media tend to point fingers hard and fast after adventure fatalities, but Kiwis apparently follow the opposite philosophy to an almost surreal extreme. The prevailing New Zealand attitude seems to be that adventure requires risk, adventurers shouldn’t be coddled, the OPC is very professional, and no one could have predicted what happened. And I’d like to believe that, but it just doesn’t wash.
We’re not talking about adventure or adventurers here, we’re talking about high school students contracted to a commercial guide service for adventure training. When you combine risky pursuits, young guides, novice clients, and business volume, the standards have to be higher than ‘everyone knew the risk’ simply because everyone doesn’t. And that’s particularly true of canyoneering, which combines fun but risky activities like rappels, pool jumps, and whitewater swimming with sexy scenery and aerobic ease – the perfect combination for marketable adventure.
But canyons are also very committing. IMHO, slick pouroffs, whitewater currents, undercut boulders, logjams, rockfalls, flash floods, and difficulty of retreat make them generally unsuited to volume guiding or team-building exercises. And the New Zealand version of ‘canyoning’ differs greatly from American-style ‘canyoneering.’ Canyoning often involves precision pool leaps from high cliffs, or necky whitewater swims above the brink of waterfalls, risks that American outfitters would never incorporate into their operating plan.
I’m a firm believer that sudden accidents rarely happen suddenly. With a little forethought and a few case histories under your belt, you can often see accident situations setting up hours, days, even weeks in advance. I’m not interested in doing a long distance Bill Frist/Terry Schiavo diagnosis here. Lessons will indeed be learned from the investigations now underway. But I suspect those lessons were already in plentiful supply. And as evidence, I offer the following recent canyoneering incidents, each with a brief outline, news links, and perhaps a few details that never made it into the media. The similarities are obvious. The gist? Hike safe mate"
Read on http://www.backpacker.com/blogs/126
If all else fails I guess there's always the 'New Zealand Life Back Promise’ to fall back on?
The tragic deaths stunned the nation when the school party drowned in a rapidly flooding gorge after warnings of heavy rain weren't acted upon.
Following the court case the Department of Labour urged the adventure tourism industry to look critically at its health and safety systems in light of the Mangatepopo canyon trekking tragedy. A lot should've been learned, but has it?
A lot has already been written about the tragedy on the net so I won't go over it again, I'll just point interested readers towards an excellent thread by Steve Howe on Backpacker blogs, from which the following snippet was taken
"We Americans and our media tend to point fingers hard and fast after adventure fatalities, but Kiwis apparently follow the opposite philosophy to an almost surreal extreme. The prevailing New Zealand attitude seems to be that adventure requires risk, adventurers shouldn’t be coddled, the OPC is very professional, and no one could have predicted what happened. And I’d like to believe that, but it just doesn’t wash.
We’re not talking about adventure or adventurers here, we’re talking about high school students contracted to a commercial guide service for adventure training. When you combine risky pursuits, young guides, novice clients, and business volume, the standards have to be higher than ‘everyone knew the risk’ simply because everyone doesn’t. And that’s particularly true of canyoneering, which combines fun but risky activities like rappels, pool jumps, and whitewater swimming with sexy scenery and aerobic ease – the perfect combination for marketable adventure.
But canyons are also very committing. IMHO, slick pouroffs, whitewater currents, undercut boulders, logjams, rockfalls, flash floods, and difficulty of retreat make them generally unsuited to volume guiding or team-building exercises. And the New Zealand version of ‘canyoning’ differs greatly from American-style ‘canyoneering.’ Canyoning often involves precision pool leaps from high cliffs, or necky whitewater swims above the brink of waterfalls, risks that American outfitters would never incorporate into their operating plan.
I’m a firm believer that sudden accidents rarely happen suddenly. With a little forethought and a few case histories under your belt, you can often see accident situations setting up hours, days, even weeks in advance. I’m not interested in doing a long distance Bill Frist/Terry Schiavo diagnosis here. Lessons will indeed be learned from the investigations now underway. But I suspect those lessons were already in plentiful supply. And as evidence, I offer the following recent canyoneering incidents, each with a brief outline, news links, and perhaps a few details that never made it into the media. The similarities are obvious. The gist? Hike safe mate"
Read on http://www.backpacker.com/blogs/126
If all else fails I guess there's always the 'New Zealand Life Back Promise’ to fall back on?
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