Department clears itself over volcano death

Mark Kearney died when Raoul Island erupted in March.

A Department of Conservation investigation into the Raoul Island eruption in March has concluded nothing could have prevented the death of one of its workers.

Auckland Conservator Sean Goddard said the investigation report, released today, did not identify any management decisions or system failures that could have led to the death.

Mark Kearney, 33, disappeared during a volcanic explosion on the island on March 17 and is believed to have died when a crater lake erupted as he was checking the water temperature.

The eruption flattened trees, threw boulders into the air, and buried the surrounding area in mud up to 5m deep.

Despite exhaustive searches by police and DOC staff, his body has not been found.

Mr Goddard said the death was "a work place accident that could not have been prevented".

"The investigation team found that staff and managers were aware of the risk of volcanic eruption and earthquakes on Raoul and that there was a strong health and safety culture," Mr Goddard said.

GNS Science had advised DOC the eruption had been an unpredictable event.

Mr Kearney's uncle, Trevor Kearney, said the various investigations were helping the family towards some understanding of his death.

"Not having Mark returned has been very hard, but they have given us more closure," he said this morning.

While the family was "very supportive" of DOC's work on the island, and of the science behind the decisions made by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS), some of the decisions appeared "unfortunate" in hindsight, he said.

"The family is talking to GNS to help ensure that these sort of decisions are never made in the future."

Mr Kearney's father, Ray, was still struggling to cope with his son's death, he said. "For him, it's on-going every day. We're not happy with the situation but we're getting closure and we're more relaxed about it.

"We know that everything that could have been done was done, it was just sheer bloody bad luck."

Mr Goddard said that while none of the recommendations on health and safety management in the report would have prevented "this tragic accident", there were lessons DOC could take to reduce the chances of staff being exposed to similar events,

"We have reviewed hazard control plans to specifically include the volcanic hazard around the crater lake area as recommended in the report, and have put in place an exclusion zone restricting access to this area for volcanic monitoring and all other work," he said.

"This exclusion zone will remain in place until an independent risk assessment of staff exposure to volcanic hazards is undertaken, as recommended in the report."

The feasibility of remote monitoring of volcanic activity on the island would also be investigated, Mr Goddard said.

DOC has also put in place a more formal communication protocol with GNS Science in relation to all volcanic and tectonic hazards on the island.

The four surviving DOC workers returned to the island last month to complete the last six months of their contracts.

- NZPA