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White Island volcano eruption: Whakaari Management found guilty of ‘astonishing’ safety failures
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
22 points (95.8% liked)
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I have to admit it's weird to me that tourists are ever allowed to go there.
I went there about 20 years ago, as a PFY even I was surprised at how lax the whole operation was.
Also, think volcanoes are risky? Wait until you hear about cars ;-)
I've had people argue tooth and nail with me that the guests knew the risks and nobody should be liable.
Absolutely mental attitude, you can't opt out of health and safety legislation.
I would argue that it has a lower risk than riding in a jet boat (or at least, before this event it could have been argued). Every few years someone dies in a jetboat crash, but this event I believe was the first time ever that there has been volcanic eruption tourism deaths, except perhaps the pink and white terraces in the 1800s.
The court cases show heaps of issues with the procedures, but I don't see a reason not to allow anyone to ever go there. Just maybe don't go when the alert level has been raised and make sure you stay within health and safety rules.
We also let people ski on Ruapehu which erupts every so often, seems the same to me.
I can see your point.
I always got the impression seismologically Whakaari was more likely to go than Ruapehu, but that might just be because it's a tsunami risk so civil defence always talked about it. "White Island Eruption" was a bit like "Quicksand".
In terms of the jet boat I think it's a probability vs magnitude issue i.e a jetboat is not able to kill as many people at a time. Also not sure whether the per capita is much worse?
I think it's where the volcanic alert levels come in. At this event, the rating had been raised to say there was a risk but operators still went anyway because they got away with it in the past. I can see a future where we continue these trips but only at volcanic alert levels of 0 or 1.