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The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre faces fines and
penalties of nearly half a million dollars, over the canyoning
accident last year that killed six Elim College students and their
teacher.
The group and their instructor were caught in a flash flood in the
Managtapopo Gorge.
On Friday, they were fined $480,000 at the District Court in Auckland.
Sixty thousand dollars will go to each of the families of the teacher and six children killed while being guided on a trip run by the Outdoor Pursuits Centre.
The four students who survived the tragedy are to get $5,000 each.
The judge says the fine would have been even higher if it were not for the fact the centre is a charitable trust.
"Reparation is not the question, we will never get back what we have lost," says Jennifer Fernandes, victuim's mother.
The judge concluded it came down to a simple, fatal error. The group and their instructor should never have been in the gorge that day, given the weather forecast.
OPC based decisions on an outdated weather forecast, missing a the vital word, "thunderstorms".
The court heard, had it simply signed up for Metservice storm warnings, it would have the got the message four times that day.
The judge deliberated for an hour after hearing from the Department of Labour, Pursuits Centre and, in a rare move, the instructor who took the group out.
Instructor Jodie Sullivan's lawyer requested she be sentenced to a restorative justice programme separate to that of the affected families. The court heard how Sullivan had risked her own life to try to save the group.
Sullivan decided to float down the swelling river to the canyon exit and pull the others out as they followed her, but she couldn't save them all.
The judge said Sullivan, who'd been on the job just three months should not have been the one deciding to enter the gorge. It should have been the call of OPC's senior instructor.
Her lawyer says she is still deeply traumatised, has already talked with the affected families and attended some of the funerals.
Charges laid
The OPC admitted in January that it failed to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of the six Elim College students and their teacher who died.
The OPC admitted in January that it failed to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of the six Elim College students and their teacher who died.
The Department of Labour laid four charges against the centre under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. Two charges were withdrawn because the department considered they were adequately covered by the charges subject to the guilty pleas.
It told the court the canyoning trip should never have been allowed to go ahead and the gorge should have been closed to all activities that day. The department said the centre should have had more thorough weather information.
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