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03-03-2024
WELLINGTON: A New Zealand court has ordered NZ$10m (£4.8m; $6m) in compensation to the victims of the White Island volcano disaster, where 22 people died.
Some 47 people were touring the volcano when it erupted in December 2019. Many of the survivors were gravely injured.
The firm that owns the island and those that operated tours there were found guilty last year of negligence and safety breaches.
The court said their failure to provide proper checks had ruined many lives.
It also found that the operators had ignored the signs of heightened activity in the weeks leading up to the eruption on the island, which is also known by its Māori name Whaakari.
On Friday, the Auckland District Court ordered the company that owns the island, Whakaari Management Limited (WML), to pay NZ$4.57m in damages to victims.
WML which manages the privately-owned island on behalf of a family licenced tour groups to visit the volcano.
The court also ordered White Island Tours, the company which had brought the tourists to the island for a walking tour, to pay NZ$4.68m in reparations.
Three other tour companies, Volcanic Air Safaris, Aerius Limited and Kahu NZ Limited, were also ordered to pay damages.
Separately, GNS Science, a government-owned research body that monitors New Zealand’s volcanos was ordered to pay a fine of $54,000 for inadequately communicating with contractors about the risks on White Island.
“GNS observes that as a public body there will be a negative impact on the important service it provides given any fine would need to come from its operating budget,” Judge Evangelos Thomas said.
“However, the public interest in holding all entities, including important public entities, to account outweighs that.”
Seventeen of the tourists who died on White Island were from Australia, with the others from the US, New Zealand and Germany. Tourists from the UK, China and Malaysia were also among those affected.
Judge Thomas said the compensation was “no more than a token recognition” of the victims’ suffering.
Families were broken after the deaths of loved ones, he acknowledged. Many of the survivors suffered terrible burns and were still enduring a painful toll.
“The treatment was often painful, arduous, disheartening. For many it remains ongoing,” he said.
“Many people grapple with disfigurement of one kind or another. It’s not just simply the physical injury that has caused such harm… the emotional consequences deepen the suffering. We acknowledge that harm.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
