But the fact that wherever a death occurs, the employer, hospital or adventure tourism operator, knows that a coroner will likely require them to attend an inquest and provide evidence of what happened, and what the process and procedures are, had meant they had taken more responsibility for their actions, he said.
Born in Dunedin, Mr McElrea was educated at Otago Boys' High School and gained a BA at Otago University before a law degree at the University of Canterbury. He practised in Christchurch, becoming a partner at law firm Duncan Cotterill in 1970.
In 1994, he became a part-time coroner for the Canterbury region, juggling his private practice duties until 2007, when he became a fulltime coroner. He retired as a partner a year later.
Mr McElrea believed that improvements in the coronial process came when a Coroners' Council was formed in 1994, with biannual meetings and attendance of overseas conferences. The group had a large input into the Law Commission report of 2000 and the Coroners Act 2006.
Retiring coroner Richard McElrea has examined and made recommendations on several major tragedies
Mr McElrea, a founding member and chairman of the council, believed that was a crucial period.
"We became involved with outside investigative agencies, like the Civil Aviation Authority, Transport Accident Investigation Commission, police, Health and Disability Commissioner, hospitals, and that was very important."
He enjoyed the inquisitorial aspect of the role and the considerable powers at his fingertips to require evidence to be provided to undertake an investigation, and to conduct the inquiry.
Dealing with families who were desperate to find out just how their loved one died, had also been "extremely rewarding professionally", he said. "Families are at the heart of the [Coroners] Act and of our work."
There was a distinctive Australasian jurisprudence, or way in which coroners conducted their cases, he said.
He compared the in-depth investigations with extended written findings favourably to the UK, as an example, where coroners dealt with more cases and had limited opportunities for extended narration.
Calls for a mandatory response regime to coroner's recommendations by Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean are supported by Mr McElrea.
But he said the system should always be subject to consideration, change and adjustment.
"It's the kind of office that will never be perfect - that's the very nature of it."
Married to Rosemary for 47 years, the father-of-three and keen off-piste skier now hopes to spend more time mountain walking, jogging, cycling, and spending time with his eight grandchildren.
His biggest cases
• Eight people died in one of New Zealand's worst air disasters when a chartered Piper Navajo Chieftain aircraft crashed near Christchurch Airport on June 6, 2003, killing pilot Michael Bannerman and seven employees of the Crop & Food Research Institute at Lincoln. After a 17-day hearing, Mr McElrea found the deaths were preventable and made a host of recommendations to the CAA and Minister of Transport to prevent another tragedy.
• A skydiving plane that crashed near the Fox Glacier airstrip shortly after taking off on September 4, 2010, killing four tourists and five Skydive NZ staff, was over the allowable weight limit and unbalanced, Mr McElrea found.
• This week, Mr McElrea released his findings into the mysterious death of Rutger Telford Hale who died on the highway between Lake Hawea and Wanaka on October 24, 2013 after an object flew through his car windscreen. He found the 22-year old had died from a "penetrating wound to the right face and head" but was unable to say what the object was, whose vehicle it came from and where it went after it killed Mr Hale.
