Centre's guilty pleas over canyon tragedy welcomed

Teacher Tony McClean and students Anthony Mulder, Floyd Fernandes, Natasha Bray, Portia McPhail, Tara Gregory and Huan Hsu died in the Mangatepopo Gorge. Photos / Supplied, Sarah Ivey

The school and families of six students and a teacher who died on a canyoning trip last year have welcomed an admission by the centre running the course that it failed to protect them.

Six students and a teacher from the Elim Christian College in Auckland died when they were swept down the Mangatepopo Gorge near Turangi after a storm downpour raised river levels dramatically on April 15.

The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre (OPC) announced today it now admitted two charges laid by the Department of Labour after the multiple tragedy.

Elim Christian College said it was pleased the adventure centre had taken responsibility for its actions but said there would never be closure for the victims' loved ones.

"The pain is huge and the loss is felt every moment (as it does for any other families who have prematurely lost loved ones)," it said in a statement.

"Whilst we support accountability and have confidence in the legal system to follow due process, there will never be closure.

"While nothing can erase what has happened or restore our broken families we want to ensure that as a consequence of this unfortunate process that a tragedy of this kind can be averted in the future and adventure activities of this kind made even safer."

OPC chairman Rupert Wilson said the centre had originally planned to defend the charges but decided to admit them due to the strict liability of Health and Safety legislation and the time it would have taken for the hearing to take place.

"The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre acknowledges and truly regrets that on this occasion, it did not fully implement the standards of safety and care which OPC prides itself on," he said in a statement.

The OPC will plead guilty to one charge under the Act that, as an employer, it failed to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its employee, Jodie Sullivan, while at work. Ms Sullivan was the OPC instructor who led the high school group into the gorge.

The second charge is that OPC failed to take all practicable steps to ensure that no action or inaction of Jodie Sullivan harmed any other person.

The other two charges were withdrawn because the department considered they were adequately covered by the charges now subject to the guilty pleas.

In his statement, Mr Wilson said the centre had decided to plead guilty to the charges because:

* The outdoor environment it operated in involved constant judgement calls which would have been hard to defend
* The need for expediency - a full defended hearing would not have taken place for two years
* The strain the OPC was already under from the tragedy
* The financial impact of a court case
* The fact that the canyoning victims died under its care

In October the Department of Labour laid four charges under the Health and Safety in Employment Act against the centre. They were due to be heard in Taumarunui District Court today but the centre said the charges would not be formally called and neither the department nor the centre would appear.

"OPC has informed the Department of Labour and the Taumarunui District Court that it will plead guilty to two charges laid under the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Act," Department of Labour group manager workplace services Maarten Quivoy said.

Families of those who died in the accident, and families of the survivors, were told about the OPC plea at meetings held over the last few days.

The case will now be adjourned until sentencing.

A sentencing date has yet to be set by Taumarunui District Court.

- NZPA and NZHERALD STAFF