DOC incidents and abuse

Yeah. Well. Some times, in the parks -'It' happens. http://www.splashdirect.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/jurassic-park-gennero-on-toilet.jpg

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/91650535/christchurch-man-ben-gourdie-dies-after-being-swept-away-by-fastflowing-west-coast-river

The stuff reporter who wrote the piece linked to above is geographically challenged. The Taipo River is in Westland District not Grey District. I assume she was unfamiliar with the area? This would have been something that was easy to check and get right.

For clarity do you mind if we split further discussion of the Taipo River thing into a different topic? I don't own the conversation more than anyone else, but as far as I can tell it has no relation to my original intent and subject, which was about DOC workplace incidents and abuse of DOC staff as presented in the original link.

Ah yeah sorry, I was in a hurry and thought it was the topic about incidents. Can't seem to be able to post again in that topic? This forum is very weird ^^

They had this article on the front page of the Chch Press newspaper. I couldn't believe they could put such non-news on the front page - like bread and circuses stuff, when there is so much going on that needs to be put there. Perhaps they thought Chch people could do with a bit of schadenfreude.

Really? The article itself is hardly front page material. I did find the referenced Threats and Intimidation document an interesting read, though, just to give a picture of the types of crap those staff sometimes have to cope with for doing their job. It seems odd that incident of the guy who sexually assaulted all the girls in Pinnacles Hut, and then tried to get into a sleeping bag with a 7 year old girl, was rated low risk. Maybe those ratings are meant to be specifically about risk to the DOC staff rather than the public.

Good times at DoC. I've had a few over the years. Got stuck between rock falls half way between Klondyke and Arthur's Pass after going to check out a reportedly big one. After finding it and sending all the tourists back a slide came down in front of me on the way back to town. Had to leave the truck and leg it down the rail lines. Saw so many near misses on the roads and at river crossings. I remember talking to some people on the radio at Hawdon Hut, there was a heavy rain warning and the rivers were already in flood. They insisted on heading out despite us telling them they were crazy. I headed down to the shelter to see if they made it and sure enough they got to the last crossing before the carpark. We were waving them off and pointing down to the rail bridge but in they jumped and were promptly swept downstream. They were swept back to their side and finally followed our advice to the rail bridge. Could have easily gone the other way. We went and picked them up and I had the pleasure of informing them a massive beech had flattened their car in the carpark haha

@kiwirich. I'm confused. I've never seen a rail bridge over the Hawdon river. Or did I misunderstand what you wrote? You're not thinking of Bealey rail bridge when exiting Edwards/Mingha are you?