Attitude

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 477, 16 March 1993, Page 1

Attitude

Concem was expressed by councillors and council officers at Turoa's attitude, it was reported on radio following the meeting. But Mr Grimwade said yesterday the criticism was unjustified. "We are working on updating our evacuation plan, which needs to be in force by June this year, and in the mean time the old one can be used," said Mr Grimwade. He said the ski field has to work daily on matters of public safety and that a civil defence emergency evacuation would be an extension of their normal activities, such as their ski patrol sweep of the field at the end of a day's skiing where people are ushered down the mountain, to the top of the mountain road. The company was working on one document to take in all matters of safety including provisions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which covers staff, avalanche control, search and rescue, as well as civil defence. "We're already very safety conscious because we have to be otherwise people wouldn't ski here. We've had no major avalanches, no ski field deaths since I've been here and we had five search and rescue missions last year and we found them all." He said management and staff work on exer-