Photo: Supplied / Lillani Hopkins
WorkSafe says the two booking agents accused of health and safety failings in the Whaakari / White Island trial failed to do the bare minimum to inform customers about the risks of visiting the volcanic island.
ID Tours and Tauranga Tourism Services (TTSL) are applying for their charges to be dismissed - relating to health and safety failings before the deadly eruption in 2019.
Many of the 22 people who died in the disaster were tourists from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship, owned by Royal Caribbean.
Yesterday, the booking agents' lawyers argued the case was confusing and conflicting.
Today at Auckland District Court, WorkSafe prosecutor Steve Symon defended the case saying the booking agents had access to safety information but did not pass this on to their customers - Royal Caribbean cruise passengers.
"These passengers received less health and safety information than passengers that booked directly with the tour operator White Island Tours (WIT).
"These passengers did not receive White Island Tours safety terms and customer declaration forms, or any information about the Volcanic Alert Level, both which were provided for White Island Tours' own customers."
He said the defence was placing "little weight" on the safety documents.
"They [the safety documents] didn't meet the standards as expected, but they were the bare minimum.
"While Island Tours needed to provide more [accurate safety information], but ID Tours and Tauranga Tourism Services had the obligation to pass on what information [they had], no matter what."
He said the safety documents could have changed tourists' mind on whether to engage in the trip or not.
"We don't want to downplay the significance that this information would have had for those passengers on the 9 December, if they had received it.
"There is evidence that for some individuals, relevant safety information would [have] influenced their decision to participate in the tour."
Symon said ID Tours and Tauranga Tourism Services failed to do the bare minimum.
"These defendants breached their respected duties and each failed to do the bare minimum - to ensure that cruise passengers were receiving at least the same health and safety information that was available for non-cruise passengers that booked directly with White Island Tours."
He said it would have been possible to provide the information to cruise passengers.
"The systems for providing information up and down the supply chain, such as invoicing, could have been used to provide important health and safety information up the chain," Symon said.
"Such confirmation could have been as simple as obtaining a tick-box confirmation from customers that they had read and understood the relevant safety terms, which could have been passed down the chain in several ways."
ID Tours lawyer David Neutze said there was no evidence that a person would have turned down the tour only by seeing the safety waiver.
The trial will resume on Tuesday when Judge Evangelos Thomas will be giving his decision.
