Directly following the event, which received widespread and long
running media coverage in New Zealand, the Coroner’s Office undertook an
investigation, the report from which was made public March 30, 2010 (Davenport,
C.J. (March 30, 2010). Report of Coroner,
In The Coroner’s Court held at Auckland, February 15 to February 19, 2010).
Additionally, the New Zealand Department of Labour pressed charges under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. OPC plead guilty to two charges and paid $480,000 in fines and reparations.
The new regulations,
administered under the New Zealand Health and Safety in Employment Act, make it
an offence to provide activities involving significant hazards and instruction
or guiding without a current safety audit certificate.
According to a press
release from the NZ Minister of Labour, the regulations “will ensure that the
industry is regulated appropriately and that injury prevention remains the top
priority. The regulations will fill safety gaps identified in the Adventure
Tourism Review and help keep New Zealanders and overseas tourists safe, while
ensuring operators can remain viable and innovative.”
The Adventure Tourism
Review, commissioned by the Prime Minister of New Zealand (based on the public
outcry following the Mangatepopo event and a number of other adventure related
deaths), was called to investigate the state of risk and safety management in
the adventure sector, a key tourism driver for the country.
In the report (link
here), the review team found that risk management ability and capacity
existed in the sector, but “there is insufficient assurance that all activities
involving heightened inherent risk are being managed safely and that
preventable accidents will not occur.”
On the day of the canyoneering deaths,
an auditor from an industry lead accreditation program (OutdoorsMark)
was present, and in her report none of the issues later raised against the OPC
were identified. This called into question the sector’s ability to regulate
itself, and compelled the eventual entry of the government and its new
regulations.
The new regulations are available here.