Prosecutor alleges White Island owners put profits before safety prior to December 2019 tragedy

Visitors to New Zealand’s Whakaari/White Island were not given any health and safety information in the lead up to the volcano’s deadly eruption in December 2019.

The opening day of a landmark trial in the Auckland District Cout over the disaster, which resulted in 22 deaths, heard prosecutor Kirsty McDonald accused the island’s owners of putting profits before safety.

The owners of the island, and their company, are among six defendants facing a lengthy trial on charges related to health and safety failings, to which they have pleaded not guilty. The judge-only trial follows the most extensive and complex investigation ever conducted by WorkSafe NZ, and several other companies responsible for visitors to the island have already admitted to charges against them.

In her opening address, which lasted the entire day, prosecutor McDonald described the area many were located where the tourists were visiting as “the heart of the crater”.

Prosecutor McDonald described the volcano as unpredictable and volatile, noting that its previous eruption in 2016 had come without warning. She alleged the island’s owners - Andrew, James and Peter Buttle - never bothered to know the risks, had no health and safety procedures and attempted to divert responsibility to tour operators to whom they charged annual licence fees and commissions per customer.

In the summary of the case against the owners, she stated “profit should never come before safety.”

The three Buttle brothers, along with their company, Whakaari Management Limited, and ID Tours New Zealand and Tauranga Tourism Services have all had criminal charges brought against them by New Zealand’s workplace safety regulator which allege they breached workplace safety laws.

The organisations face maximum fines of $1.5 million and individuals face maximum fines of $300,000.

The New Zealand Government’s safety and labour inspectorate alleges Andrew, James and Peter Buttle and Whakaari Management Limited (WML), “failed to obtain expert advice on how WML could ensure that guided tours of Whakaari were conducted safely”.

Prosecutor McDonald accused ID Tours New Zealand and Tauranga Tourism Services of failing to provide adequate warning and protection against possible eruptions to their customers.

She noted that while hard hats were provided and required, other protective clothing was not. Many visitors were dressed in T-shirt and shorts when they should have been in overalls and sturdy boots made of heat-resistant material. While gas masks were offered, they were often unfit for purpose.

Defence lawyers said their clients were not responsible for the health and safety of those on the island as that was the responsibility of others.

In 2020, WorkSafe NZ first laid charges against 13 parties they considered not to have met their obligations under the health and safety act. Since then, six parties have pleaded guilty.

One has had its charges dismissed.

Two weeks before the fatal eruption, experts monitoring its seismic activity raised the volcanic alert level to two, indicating “moderate to heightened volcanic unrest”.

22 people, most of them tourists, died from extreme burns and blast injuries when Whakaari erupted on 9th December 2019, with a number of survivors severely injured.

The trial continues.

Images: White Island erupts (top, credit: Shutterstock) and a tour helicopter abandoned on White Island in the aftermath of the December 2019 eruption (below).