“.. A string of serious near misses – and one fatality – had already been recorded by Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre staff working in the Mangatepopo Gorge when six teenagers and their teacher were trapped and killed there in 2008.
The 1976 drowning of a student was revisited by media in the wake of the devastating canyoning accident involving a group from Auckland’s Elim Christian College. But the Sunday Star-Times has now learned of at least six further incidents under the watch of pursuits centre staff taking trips into the gorge.
High-level sources say more incidents are likely to be revealed once a suppression order – in place until after the coroner’s written findings into the most recent fatalities – is lifted.
The revelation comes on the back of a Coroner’s Court inquest which last week heard of a lack of institutional knowledge at the Turangi centre, high staff turnover and management conflict.
During the inquest, which finished in Auckland on Friday, coroner Chris Devonport directed a report from a review team to the trustees of the pursuits centre not be published until the issue of his findings.
Cross-examination suggested it contained a list of historic mishaps in the gorge.
Jodie Sullivan, the instructor in charge of the Elim group which became trapped by rising floodwaters on April 15, 2008, was reported to have told the court she knew of earlier incidents and that care was needed around certain points in the gorge.
The Star-Times has since been independently told that in one week, in 1994, when “logistics were stretched to the limits” with 100 students from Kristin School at the Turangi centre, floodwaters caught two separate groups of students and trapped a staff rescue party until 2am.
And in 1984, an instructor’s leg was broken when he tried to find an alternative route out of the gorge for his group.
A source said there were “not that many” significant Mangatepopo Gorge incidents over nearly four decades of operation ..
.. and the centre was unlucky the Elim incident happened: ..
..”But they were also lucky it took 40 years. It could have happened in 84 or 94.”
go to source/story>>Fatality, near-misses preceded gorge deaths | Stuff.co.nz
