Far North company guilty over death of tourist at Te Paki sand dunes

Far North company Sand Safaris 2014 Limited has been found guilty of failing to prevent death or serious injury, after Korean tourist Jin Chang Oh died after boogie boarding down a sand dune at Te Paki on a tour the company was running. Photo / File

A Far North company that runs tours to sandboard down the dunes at Te Paki has been found guilty of failing to prevent death or serious injury, after Korean tourist Jin Chang Oh died while on a tour the company as running.

Sand Safaris 2014 Ltd appeared in court in December in Kaitaia to defend the charge, laid by WorkSafe, after the tourist died after being run over by a bus while sandboarding down Northland’s Te Paki Stream sand dunes.

Chang Oh, 68, died when he was hit by a tour bus while sandboarding at Te Paki dunes on February 4, 2019. Oh went down the sand dune and at the bottom was struck by the back wheels of a Sand Safaris bus, suffering fatal head injuries.

Oh’s death was witnessed by a large group of people, including his wife, son and daughter-in-law. Jin Chang Oh’s son, Sang Kyun Oh, travelled from Korea for the trial.

In his just-released, reserved decision, Judge Philip Rzepecky has found Sand Safaris 2014 Ltd guilty on the charge, laid under the Health and Safety Act. The company will be in court again on June 2, when a sentencing date will be set.

During the hearing, WorkSafe lawyer Rachael Woods said the company had inadequate and inappropriate safety measures in place given the risks of sandboarding at the dunes. Woods said this was a real risk and the company would have been aware of it after a boy was hit by a vehicle sandboarding on the dunes two years earlier.

However, the company argued that Chang Oh ignored a warning not to go down the dunes when he did.

Daniel Beazley, who was driving the Dune Rider bus the Ohs were on, said he gave his usual instructions that day of telling those going sandboarding of the safety rules, including how to slow the board down (by digging the toes into the sand) and asked some passengers at the bottom of the dunes to keep an eye out for other vehicles and stop them from going past while people were sandboarding. (Dune Rider has the same shareholders and directors as Sand Safari, but is a separate company).

Beazley said as usual he went to the top of the dunes and again explained the safety measures, including that people had to go down one at a time. He said as he was kneeling down to help a young girl get on her board, he heard a board hit the sand behind him.

He turned and saw it was Oh and Beazley said he put his hand up and told Oh to stop as he could not go down the part of the dune he was potentially going to go down, and told him to wait and go down the area where he was helping the young girl. Oh picked up his board and smiled at him, Beazley said.

Beazley said when he turned back to help the girl he again heard a board hit the sand and a second or so later when he looked around, Oh was already halfway down the sand dune. Beazley said he did not know for sure if all the people understood English, but said they smiled and nodded and he took that to mean they did understand.

However, Judge Rzepecky found Oh was not to blame “at all” for what happened to him. The judge said Sand Safaris could’ve implemented an effective traffic management system to help prevent Oh’s death.

He said there was a clearly identifiable hazard, which the company had a duty to eliminate or significantly minimise using reasonably practicable steps, and failure to take these steps significantly contributed to the cause of Oh’s death.