01 March 2024 , 17:15
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A judge has ordered almost $8 million in compensation to be paid to the families of victims and survivors of the Whakaari White Island disaster.
Tour booking agents and managers will pay out the cash following a disaster on a New Zealand island where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people and left others with life-changing burns. White Island, called Whakaari by its indigenous Maori name, was a popular tourist destination before the disastrous eruption. Among the 47 tourists who joined the ill-fated trip in December 2019, 22 died and others faced long-lasting injuries.
White Island Tours, the company that operated walking tours on the volcano on the day of the eruption, was fined $483,9000 for breaches of New Zealand’s workplace safety legislation and ordered to pay $4.68 million in compensation. “There is no way to measure the emotional harm survivors and affected families have endured and will continue to endure,” Judge Evangelos Thomas told an Auckland court.
READ MORE: White Island volcano tourists flee moments before eruption kills 22 in horror video
White Island volcano erupted while 47 people were visiting on a tour.“Reparation in a case like this can be no more than token recognition of that harm. No review of prevailing reparation levels conducted by any other court contemplates emotional harm of the scale and nature that is present in this case. Greater awards are appropriate.”
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He added: "Twenty two people lost their lives, the remaining people on the island were all injured, most seriously. For those remaining, the suffering has been immense.” During Friday’s sentencing, Judge Thomas was particularly critical toward the shareholders of Whakaari Management Ltd, the holding company for the island’s owners. He slammed Andrew, James and Peter Buttle for “profiting handsomely” from trips to White Island.
“This case, like many others, sadly reveals how simply corporate structures can be used to thwart meaningful responses to safety breaches,” Judge Thomas added. “There may be no commercial basis for doing so, but many would argue there is an inescapable moral one. We wait to see what the Buttles will do. The world is watching.”
Footage showed in court pictured the tourists walking near the volcano seconds before it eruptedJudge Thomas noted that while he could not make orders against the three men individually, it did not relieve their company of its $636,000 fine or from paying its share of the reparations towards the victims and their families. As part of the sentencing, New Zealand scientific agency GNS Science, a government group that monitors volcanic activity, was also fined $33,000.
Judge Thomas has overseen this case since late 2020 when charges were first laid and has been clear to highlight the pain many survivors still experience long after the tragic event. "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 just simply the physical injury that has caused such harm … the emotional consequences deepen the suffering. We acknowledge that harm."
Horror footage showed smoke rising from the volcano as tourists watched from a distanceSteve Haszard, Chief Executive at WorkSafe New Zealand, said the people on the volcano trip had not been properly informed of the risks they faced that day and said this week’s ruling “belongs to the survivors and the whānau and friends of those who were harmed or lost their lives". Whakaari White Island sits 48km off the coast of New Zealand and is still an active volcano.