Canyon tragedy trial waste of time says victim's father

By PATRICK GOWER

A manslaughter trial over a Swiss canyoning tragedy will solve nothing, says the father of one of the two New Zealanders killed.

Eight men will stand trial today charged with the manslaughter of 21 people killed in a flash flood during a canyoning adventure along a Swiss river two years ago.

New Zealanders Jon Roe and Andrew Lee, a guide, both 30, were among the victims near the central Swiss town of Interlaken on July 27, 1999. Fourteen Australians also died.

Hamilton man David Roe last night questioned the worth of charges being laid at all.

"They should just forget about it and get on with life," he told the Herald last night.

"You know the risks involved and it is your decision whether you are prepared to take that risk. It could happen to anyone and nothing is ever going to change that."

The accused include two tour guides who cheated death in the disaster, their lead guide and five bosses at the now-defunct Adventure World, the company that organised five canyoning trips down Saxet Brook when a thunderstorm was breaking.

They are accused of manslaughter through culpable negligence for not cancelling trips already booked despite the thunderstorm, which had been forecast in weather reports and could be seen from the starting point of the canyoning trip.

The storm sent a deadly wall of water sweeping through the group of 53, smashing many onto boulders downstream and leaving 18 tourists and three guides dead.

Mr Roe said he had not changed his view that since the charges were first laid last year that those who gave the expedition the go-ahead - apparently against local advice - should be prosecuted, not the guides.

"I am sure the guides would not have done it if they thought they were in danger."

Christchurch river guide Mike Abbott, who was working as a guide for Adventure World at the river at the time, was not recommended for prosecution.

Adventure World closed last year after the death of an American tourist in a bungy jumping accident.

Most of the tourists on the canyoning trip - who were also from South Africa, Britain and Switzerland - were on the holiday of a lifetime.

Mr Roe has chosen not to go to Switzerland for the trial.

Several other victims' families will attend, with so much interest in the case that it will be held in the theatre hall of Interlaken's casino rather than in a courtroom.

"Every couple of months it gets stirred up and all the memories come back," said Mr Roe. "Hopefully when it is over we can all just move on rather than just having it dragged up all the time."

The trial will be conducted in Swiss-German, with no automatic translation for English speakers in the court.

Relatives will be given a briefing at the end of each session by victim legal service translators, with a judgment expected early next week.