Don’t be so sensible Ciderman.
Being privately owned, the government has no jurisdiction over it. It is fool hardy to visit the island, regardless. Tourists have to sign a waiver that they are well aware of the risks, however the tour operator and/or the owner must take full responsibilty.
To have allowed the tourists to go into the crater is beyond belief.
I know bugger all about volcanoes but this man does and he explains why there were no warnings of the eruption and why it was a surprise even to expert volcanologists.
Whyever not? This is a discussion forum, not a race to see who can make the most scathing comments about others! :shock:
There seems to be some confusion over whether or not warnings were issued. Does anyone know for sure?
Ah - just seen Bruce’s excellent video - that explains it perfectly.
Thank you Bruce.
I just read there is to be a criminal investigation…so there must be some concern that people were knowingly put in danger
I think the “criminal investigation” might be a bit misleading. Whenever deaths are involved in a system controlled by a business the investigation is simply to ensure that there is no culpable action necessary.
The warning levels go up and down a lot and were not considered dangerous as they were in the 1 to 2 levels of a 5 level scale and happened many times over the past decades.
Sad though the event is, it is probably statistically safer visiting that volcano over the last 30 years.than riding a motorbike.
Thanks for the video Bruce very informative, that bloke knows his stuff…
Yes Summer, I heard something on the lunchtime news about this. They were saying there is to be an investigation as to why anyone was allowed on there.
The police have backed off with a ‘criminal’ investigation, now calling it a thorough investigation.
There seems to be some confusion over whether or not warnings were issued. Does anyone know for sure?
Warnings were not issued, it was not seen as an imminent eruption. The level was raised 2 weeks ago, and because the volcano is seen as unpredictable, I don’t believe anyone should have gone there. Years ago nobody visited White Island, they steered well clear, but in these gung ho days caution gets thrown to the wind.
There is an element of risk in every situation though in a country sitting on the “ring of fire” Isa. Lets face it, if we had been around in NZ in AD186 the entire then non existant population of the North Island would have been killed in the biggest volcanic eruption on earth in the last 10,000 years- the Taupo eruption.
There’s a volcano a couple of miles from our house. It’s been extinct for 300 million years though, so I don’t lose sleep over it.
And there are fears it may happen with the Yellowstone supervolcano in the US.
Yes that’s true Ciderman, but they shouldn’t have been allowed there, let alone walk into the crater.
But surely you have to let people use their own common sense. If you dictate what they can or cannot do, you take away their risk choices. Then you get into a society which has evolved today where someone trips on an uneven pavement and sues the council; someone walks down a slipway and slips!! …so sues the council.
It was a volcano they were visiting - they must have been aware of an element of risk…they undertook to take that risk. All very sad, but it was at their own risk.
Sometimes we must take responsibility for our own decisions Lindy…
Looking back, I’ve made some foolish decisions and put myself in danger, but it was such a buzz, and I was lucky…
That’s PC talk if ever I’ve heard heard of it. If you walk into a live crater you have a death wish, so if your life is so cheap then go ahead. Who cares about the ones you leave behind,!!
Walking into a crater is far from the same as tripping on an eneven pavement.
The aftermath; quote’; An emergency doctor treating burn patients injured in the Whakaari/White Island eruption has described horrific scenes at Waikato Hospital.
“It’s one of the most challenging things to look at because you know the patients are in so much pain and will be fighting for their life for the next two or three weeks and even then they could die,” John Bonning, president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, told the Herald.
His comments come as New Zealand authorities import 120sq m of skin from the United States and Australia to help treat the victims’ terrible burn injuries.
So do we know, where and who they get the skin from?
PC talk? You must be joking Isa, if it was PC talk everyone would be kept in cotton wool, mollycoddled and not allowed to do anything adrenalin based…