A school caving trip in Whangārei that claimed the life of 15-year-old Karnin Petera should have been cancelled due to severe weather warnings, a coroner has found.
But the findings say the adults inside the cave did their best to get students to safety after floodwaters swept through.
Petera, known as Tino, drowned when his Whangārei Boys’ High School outdoor education group was caught in flash flooding in Abbey Caves on May 9, 2023. Sixteen other boys and two adults managed to escape.
A coronial inquest was held in Whangārei in April and May this year.
In findings released today, coroner Alexander Ho criticised the decision to proceed with the trip, with an orange heavy rain warning in place for Northland.
The school's risk assessment stated that any heavy rain warnings would result in the trip being cancelled.
However, those responsible for planning the trip believed the warning did not specifically apply to Abbey Caves and relied on hourly forecasts predicting lighter rainfall.
They also believed the cave was not prone to flooding, based on previous experience.
An "overly optimistic risk tolerance" was applied, Ho found, particularly given the students were inexperienced cavers.
But he accepted precautions had been taken, including leaving school earlier and limiting the trip to one cave.
He did not believe the teachers would have proceeded had they thought the trip was unsafe.
At the inquest at the Whangārei District Court, Petera's parents gave emotional evidence.
"We trusted our son would be safe at school," said his mother, Alicia Toki.
"We never want any other family to be in the same position as us."
Karnin Petera’s parents told a coroner’s inquest their son was not sure the fatal school trip should go ahead. (Source: 1News)
The findings show she questioned whether the trip would proceed the night before.
His father, Andre Petera, also phoned the school in the morning to report flooding in central Whangārei.
That warning was not passed on to the group, although the coroner could not establish whether it would have changed the outcome.
Inside the cave, water levels initially appeared normal before rising rapidly as the group prepared to leave.
The decision was made to evacuate rather than move to a higher passage, where students risked becoming trapped.
Ho found both options carried risks and the decision to leave was reasonable in the circumstances.
A teacher and an external instructor helped students through powerful currents towards the exit, but Petera became trapped and drowned.
The coroner found both adults "did their best" to ensure the boys' safety, and the boy's death was "no reflection" on their actions inside the cave.
However, Ho concluded Petera would not have died in these circumstances had the trip been cancelled.
He recommended clearer cancellation criteria for school trips, improvements to Ministry of Education guidance and changes to how MetService presents weather information.
Whangārei Boys’ High School has since strengthened its outdoor education safety procedures.
An earlier WorkSafe investigation found multiple failures contributed to the teenager’s death and concluded the tragedy was preventable. In September 2024, the school’s board was ordered to pay more than $500,000 in reparations.
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