24 Oct 2013

Schools want to keep outdoor activity centre despite tragedy - board member

11:33 am on 24 October 2013

A board member of the Taranaki Outdoors Pursuit and Education Centre (Topec) which led a deadly school trip at New Plymouth's Paritutu Rock, says schools in the region do not want to lose the centre.

Two school students and an outdoors instructor were swept off the rock face and drowned in high seas during an excursion in August last year.

Family members comfort Bryce Jourdain's widow Robyn Jourdain, right, outside the court.

Family members comfort Bryce Jourdain's widow Robyn Jourdain, right, outside the court. Photo: RNZ

A judge ordered Topec to pay a total of $269,000 to the victims' families and survivors on Wednesday

Topec board member Hans Konlechner told Nine to Noon most schools in Taranaki still use the centre and are confident it has made adequate changes to its processes.

"I think it has caused a review, not just of the activities, but of the whole decision-making process and I talked about it increasing the staffing levels to ensure there's a second pair of eyes over decisions.

"And about looking at the command structures to make sure they are completely unambiguous."

Judge Gerard Lynch said poor decision making played a key role in the tragedy which claimed the lives of Stephen Kahukaka-Gedye, Felipe Melo and Bryce Jordain.

Mr Konlechner says trips to Paritutu Rock are no longer part of Topec's activities.

A mountaineering instructor, meanwhile, says parents should take a more active role in finding out the experience level of outdoor education instructors, following the tragedy at Paritutu Rock.

Chris Pruden says all centres offering outdoor education must ensure their instructors have level two training, and parents should demand to know that the instructors have reached at least that level.

He says Topec needs to make major safety changes, but he does not think it should be forced to close.

Outdoors New Zealand chief executive Garth Dawson says the lessons from the incident have reverberated throughout the industry.

"There are very tragic consequences to not doing, in some cases quite simple things, on a regular basis."

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which laid the charges against Topec, says the trust should have done everything possible to protect the students and the instructor, but did not do so.