Canyoning verdict sparks much coverage but little comment

William and Sandra Peel, parents of one of the Australian victims, face the media after the verdict Keystone

The press has largely endorsed the judge's verdict in the Swiss Canyoning trial, but comment about the trial has been limited.

The seven-day trial received extensive coverage in the Swiss media, and in the Australian press because of the large number of Australians among the 21 victims.

The 18 tourists and three guides were killed in a flash flood during a Canyoning trip near Interlaken in 1999. Three directors, two managers and a lead guide of the defunct company, Adventure World, that organised the tour, were found guilty of negligent manslaughter. Two other guides, who had been on the ill-fated trip, were acquitted.

The Bern-based “Der Bund” quoted the judge, Thomas Zbinden, in its headline, “Bosses bear the main guilt”. The paper defended the judge’s decision to hand down relatively small fines and suspended sentences of between three and five months.

“Not criminals”

The trial was about “negligence and not good and bad”, commented Der Bund. The defendants were “not criminals”, the paper went on, but they failed to minimise the risks involved with the extreme sport of Canyoning.

The headline in the Zurich-based Tages-Anzeiger simply said “Faulty safety”, before outlining the judge’s reasons for giving the harshest penalties to the three directors of Adventure World.

The safety concept of the company was insufficient and despite delegating much responsibility to their managers and guides, “safety remains the responsibility of the company heads”, the Tages-Anzeiger quoted the judge as saying.

The prestigious daily, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, dedicated much of its story to the response from the lawyer representing the families of the victims and the reaction from the relatives themselves.

Lawsuits

The lawyer, Eric Blindenbacher, according to the NZZ, said he thought the amount of financial compensation for the relatives could be worked out in an orderly fashion with the insurance companies, hoping there would be no need for civil lawsuits.

The NZZ said most of the relatives had reacted positively to the verdict, and their response was also the focus of the Australian media.

Australian newspapers filled their stories with quotes from the relatives following the verdict.

The Victoria-based “The Age” quoted the one survivor who attended the trial, Rachel O’Brien. The Age said she was happy to see the managers punished, “but it was also a shock to hear the guides weren’t found guilty”.

The headline in the “Sydney Morning Herald” said, “Families happy with Canyoning tragedy verdict”.

They quoted the mother of one of the victims who also expressed her disappointment that two of the guides were acquitted: “I do think that the younger guides were kind of responsible but in the long run I think that they were doing their job and they were just a couple of kids.”

by Dale Bechtel