Photo: Supplied/ University of Canterbury
Victims of the Whakaari/White Island eruption and their families have been awarded more than $10 million in total reparations.
In the Auckland District Court on Friday, Judge Evangelos Thomas delivered sentences for five companies that took tourists to the volcanic island before the fatal eruption in 2019.
Twenty-two people died in the eruption and 25 others were injured.
He said reparations would be paid by the islands’ owner Whakaari Management Limited, White Island Tours and helicopter company, Volcanic Air Safaris.
“I adopt an individual general sum of $250,000,” Judge Thomas said.
“That calculation provides for total reparation of $10.21 million.”
Judge Thomas said the exact reparation amounts would be adjusted in some cases, including where children had lost parents.
– More to come