Following investigation into the Mangatepopo Gorge tragedy in New Zealand, where 6 students from Elim Christian College and 1 OPC staff member were killed, lessons ought to be learned from the tragedy.

An outcome of the NZ OPC case, where they pled guilty under NZ OHS legislation has equivalents in NSW legislation.

The link below has a selection of articles from the Coroner’s Hearing into the Mangatepopo Gorge NZ canyoning accident last year, and might be of interest to ORIC members to have a read of some of the learning that came out of this enquiry. Having knowledge of these lessons may give us better judgment when in a similar situation.

http://syndication.apn.co.nz/rss/nzhrsscid_001501824.xml

A synopsis of some issues that as an industry we should learn from include:

• The importance of monitoring changing weather conditions and being able to communicate these to the field.
• Having knowledge of the history of past events so we know what happens in a particular location when the weather goes bad.
• In line with this is the importance of having staff that know an area the hazards involved.
• Having someone follow up on feelings of danger when they are first detected. OPC staff had a feeling that things may have gone wrong but nobody acted upon it.

A review of these articles could be incorporated into part of your training and should be part of staff reading - Knowledge = the ability to make judgements if you are in a similar circumstance.