White Island victims get millions in reperations

By Aap Published: 23:06 EST, 29 February 2024 | Updated: 04:10 EST, 1 March 2024 Tour booking agents and managers of a New Zealand island where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people in 2019 have been ordered to pay nearly $NZ13 million ($A12.1 million) in fines and reparations. The holding company of the island’s owners, a boat tour operator and three companies that operated helicopter tours were found guilty of safety breaches at a three-month trial last year. White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Maori name Whakaari, was a popular tourist destination before the eruption. There were 47 tourists and tour guides on the island when superheated steam erupted on December 9, 2019, killing some people instantly and leaving survivors with agonising burns. ‘There is no way to measure the emotional harm survivors and affected families have endured and will continue to endure,’ Judge Evangelos Thomas said during the sentencing in a Wellington court. ‘Reparation in a case like this can be no more than token recognition of that harm.’ ‘No review of prevailing reparation levels conducted by any other court contemplates emotional harm of the scale and nature that is present in this...