Eur: Suspended sentence for Swiss tragedy is light - mother

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2001
Eur: Suspended sentence for Swiss tragedy is light - mother

By Chris Herde

BRISBANE, Dec 12 AAP - The Swiss tour company staff who received a suspended sentence
after being found guilty for the canyoning deaths of 14 Australians got off lightly, the
mother of one of the victims said today.

Linda Drake, from Anakie in central Queensland, said her family would never get over
the death of her son Toby in the 1999 tragedy.

She said she was surprised at the suspended sentences received by six of the eight
Adventure World staff. Two others were found not guilty.

"Under Swiss law they could have had up to 12 months' jail so the suspended sentence,
in the view of myself and some of the families I've been speaking with, seemed very light,"

Mrs Drake said.

"Having said that they have to live with it for the rest of their life but so do we."

Toby was one of 45 tourists on a Contiki tour of Europe and eight Adventure World guides
who were abseiling, sliding and wading down the Saxetbach gorge in four separate groups
when the wall of water raced down the river bed on July 27, 1999.

The two-metre high wave, which was sparked by a short, intense storm higher up in the
Swiss alps, dragged the group underwater and smashed them into boulders, killing 18 tourists
and three guides.

A Swiss judge found six adventure company staff guilty of manslaughter.

They were handed suspended sentences of between three and five months and fines of
4,000 to 7,500 Swiss francs ($A4,685 to $A8,785).

They will also have to each pay court costs of about 27,000 Swiss francs ($A31,665).

Two guides who led the tourists into the gorge were acquitted because their employers
at the now defunct Adventure World had not trained them well enough to recognise the dangers
of a storm.

Mrs Drake said she hoped the court would prevent a similar tragedy.

"It's been a main focus for all of us to make sure policies are put in place and this
sort of thing never happens again," she said.

"If you are doing adventure things there is obviously an element of risk but when it's
avoidable a tragedy like this should never happen."

AAP ch/jhm/mjm/de

KEYWORD: SWISS RIVER QLD

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