High ropes company says schoolboy's injury not due to its equipment

The company responsible for a high ropes course that hospitalised a 14-year-old schoolboy with critical neck injuries maintains the incident had "nothing to do with the misuse or failure of any safety equipment, instructional or participant error".

Connor Petterson, a Year 9 student at Brisbane’s Marist Brothers College, was injured while undertaking a high ropes course at Woodford, north of Brisbane, at the end of May.

It was reported that Petterson, who has now left hospital, became entangled and suffered neck and facial injuries while on a school camp activity at Adventure Alternatives Education Centre.

In a statement, Adventure Alternatives Managing Director Todd Samorowski said it was an "unforeseen incident", commenting “the incident also had nothing to do with our continued level of safety, our professionalism or the safety of any of the activities we run and will continue to run in the future

"It is imperative in this matter that we are aware and acknowledge that there are humans involved in this incident, humans with feelings, emotions and who have had to deal with a difficult and challenging situation."

Samorowski sent wishes to the student and also thanked those who have provided support to the staff involved.

He added "it is with these pieces of acknowledgement and support that we can start the process of moving forward in a positive direction."

Worksafe Queensland health and safety officials attended the scene of the incident and an investigation is underway.

Queensland personal injury lawyer Travis Schultz said even if legal waivers were signed, it was likely that Marist College remained responsible for student safety.

Schultz told the ABC “if a school sends students to a school camp, for example, where it's part of the curriculum, then that would mean that the school would potentially be equally responsible for ensuring the ongoing care and safety of the students, along with the contractor or the enterprise with whom they were placed for the duration of the camp.

"Accidents do happen, we accept that as part of Queensland law. The test, however, is whether or not reasonable care was taken to prevent foreseeable risk of injury to those students."

Image courtesy of Adventure Alternatives Education Centre/Facebook.

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