Flying fox tragedy costs Waimarino Adventure Park $35,000

The owners of a Bay adventure park have been convicted and ordered to pay $35,000 to the family of a Tauranga man who fell to his death from a flying fox.
Craig Stiffe, a temporary employee with Coastline Transport Ltd, died last December of head and chest injuries after he fell 5.5m from the flying fox at Waimarino Adventure Park.
His life support was turned off three days later in Auckland Hospital after it became clear there was no hope of saving him.
In Tauranga District Court yesterday, park owners Blair and Charlotte Anderson pleaded guilty to one charge under the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
The Act places a duty on a person who controls a place of work to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of people who have paid to be there.
Mr Stiffe's mother, Margaret Stiffe, was moved to tears as the evidence was read.
Mr Stiffe, 34, had started work with the firm the previous week. He was at the park on December 13 for a staff Christmas party.
Waimarino's lawyer, Geoff Turner, told the court the staff spent the afternoon using the park facilities before starting a barbecue at 4pm.
Alcohol was served at the barbecue while park staff started shutting down the park's rides and activities.
A Coastline Transport employee subsequently went to the park office to get a hook needed to use the flying fox, and after they had ridden on it, Mr Stiffe had a turn.
While holding a can of beer in one hand, he grabbed hold of one loop with the other.
He stepped off the platform and went part way down the flying fox before falling more than 5m and landing on his back at the base of a retaining wall.
Mr Turner told the court that the Andersons had only bought the park off Blair Anderson's father the previous October. The park had been operating for 29 years with a clear accident record.
Last November the Andersons had employed a consultant to look at the park's operations, including safety. But the report wasn't finished at the time of Mr Stiffe's accident.
Mr Turner told the court that a restorative justice conference held two weeks ago between the Andersons, Mrs Stiffe, Mr Stiffe's partner, Cindy Barclay, and her three children, had gone some way to heal the pain.
There the Andersons had offered the family $30,000 to be shared between Mrs Stiffe and Ms Barclay and her children.
He said the Andersons were not aware of the legal requirements for operating a flying fox as laid out in a document by the Accident Compensation Corporation in 1994. Shona Carr, representing the Department of Labour, said the code required the flying fox to be supervised by staff because of the height of its cable.
Mrs Carr told the court the flying fox breached eight requirements under the Health and Safety Act, including the lack of a harness system so a person could not fall from it and the enforcement of a restricted weight limit.
Mrs Carr accepted the Andersons were "Mr and Mrs New Zealand, attempting to make an honest day's living". But because the flying fox did not comply with the Act "this accident could have happened to anyone at any time".
In summing up, Judge Peter Rollo said if the flying fox had been supervised it could have prevented Mr Stiffe's death. He said that the absence of supervision and the lack of a rope barrier and harness all contributed to the accident.
Judge Rollo pointed out that the Andersons have since taken all reasonable steps to help Mr Stiffe's family and noted that Mr Anderson had attended the funeral.
While the couple could have been fined up to $250,000 for the accident, Judge Rollo said the offence was at the lower end of the scale. He ordered them to pay a total of $35,000 to Mrs Stiffe, Ms Barclay and her children - $5000 more than they had voluntarily offered.
Neither side was prepared to comment after the hearing. Instead they issued a joint statement that read in part:
"Both Waimarino and Craig Stiffe's family regret what has happened. No matter what the outcome of the court case has been, it will not change what has happened.
"We do not blame each other for what has happened and we are all hurting.
"We ask that you now honour Craig's memory by respecting our privacy at this difficult time. We all hope that Craig will be able to rest in peace."