Court ruling a 'wake-up call' for tourism operators

A New Zealand extreme sports company must pay NZ$80,000 to the family of a British girl killed while riverboarding.
Emily Jordan, 21, drowned after becoming trapped underneath a rock in the Kawarau River gorge on New Zealand's South Island in April 2008.
Black Sheep Adventures, trading as Mad Dog River Boarding, pleaded guilty to two charges of negligence in Queenstown district court last week. The court subsequently ordered the firm to pay a fine of NZ$66,000 and pay NZ$80,000 to Emily's family.
Brent Stanaway, prosecuting, told Queenstown district court that the company's guides carried no rescue ropes and its safety plan failed to meet industry standards.
Emily was trapped under water for 20 minutes until guides from another river boarding company used their own ropes to free her body on 29th April 2008. The sport involves riding a body board down rapids.
The Maritime Safety Authority (MSA), responsible for overseeing water sports safety standards in New Zealand, said the court ruling was a wake-up call for whitewater tourism operators.
"In this case, there was a wide gap between the normal accepted industry wide standards of safety practised by other white water operators and those used by Mad Dog," said MSA spokesman Steve van der Splinter.
Emily's father Chris Jordan travelled from Britain for the hearing. He told Radio New Zealand he wanted the conviction to change the way extreme sports are run, stating "to just reduce the horrendous deaths that occur in some of these extreme sports would be my primary aim, my primary reason for coming over this week."
He added that "what's really come home to me [is] how preventable this death was".
Black Sheep Adventures and company Director Brad McLeod had both denied three charges of failing to ensure the safety of their customers. All charges against McLeod and one against Black Sheep Adventures were later dropped, with the company pleading guilty to the remaining two.