By Talia Blewitt and James Murray
The inquest into the death of Aisling Symes has finished today in the Auckland District High Court.
Aisling Symes mother Angela submitted a written statement to the court, following an emotionally charged couple of days for her and her partner.
Senior Civil Servant Mr Brian Kouvelis told the inquest the lessons learned by Auckland Council following Aisling's death should be taken up by councils across New Zealand.
The court heard from a Mr Stephen Challis, a stormwater serviceman, who was supposed to be given a DVD of the blocked drain, which Aisling eventually fell down.
Mr Challis never received that DVD and estimated the amount of time it would take to fix the manhole cover as two hours.
Mr John Dragicevich, Manager, Infrastructure and Environmental services, Auckland Council also spoke, saying it was disappointing that changes had only been made as a result of a tragedy.
3 News reporter Emma Brannam has been in court over the last two days, and joined Firstline this morning to discuss statements made yesterday by Housing New Zealand and Council representatives, and what to expect from the final day of the inquest.
"What's becoming really quite clear is [the coroner] wants the authorities involved in this to be more accountable," she says.
The coroner will publish his findings at a later date.
3news.co.nz reporter Talia Blewitt was in court today and provided detailed updates of the inquest.
12:00pm - The inquest into the death of Aisling Symes has been adjourned, Housing New Zealand has 21 days to make submissions on evidence that was not heard in court. The Coroner has asked for an affidavit from someone within the corporation. Mr Symes said a brief "thank you" to the media parties as the family left the court room.
11:50am - Mr Kouvelis says all councils throughout New Zealand should take heed of changes being made in the Auckland region; review management plans and capacities, undertake this review of manhole surcharging “on this reasonably robust assessment”, unfortunately triggered by the death of Aisling Symes.
11:38am - Mr Brian Kouvelis says the evidence given by council staff over the past two days is a good indication of changes that need to be made to procedures within the council when dealing with storm water hazards and risk management, saying “they’re on the right track” already in improving the grey areas which have been addressed.
He is sure under the new Auckland Council that policies and procedures will be refined, as eight councils are brought together as one, minimising unnecessary communication chains.
11:29am - Investigations by the Waitakere Council found the lid flipped over when stood on and landed upside down and Aisling “literally disappeared before her paren’ts eyes”, says Mr Kouvelis. “It is understood all the recommendations have now been implemented”.
11:16am - Mr Brian Kouvelis, senior civil engineer, has taken the stand. "Regular complaints over the pace of seven years by tenants were not listened to, the regular displacement had not been acknowledged, there was miscommunicaton between police and SARS when the initial stages of the search were going" which led to this tragedy, says Mr Kouvelis.
10.54am - The last of the Council's witnesses has left the stand. The parents are content to leave evidence to that produced by consent yesterday. The Coroner acknowledges Ms Symes does not need to be put through further anguish by taking the stand. The statement produced yesterday outlines the moments when Aisling went missing and police were called, the description of her clothing at the time, and how Angela Symes described her two-year-old. Nothing was listed in the statement produced that the public did not already know. Chris Morris, council for the police, says the family "take comfort in the steps that have been taken by all interested parties so a similar tragedy doesn't occur again".
Court has adjourned for its morning break before seeing the last witness take the stand, Mr Brian Kouvelis.
10:40am - Mr Dragicevich says he instigated changes in policy since the death of Aisling Symes.
Mr Illingworth asks Mr Dragicevich if he is aware Aisling’s parent s have been attending meetings to enact changes in procedural policies. Mr Dragicevich says he is aware and says “it’s sad and disappointing that we have to learn from a tragedy to make changes”.
10.33am - Mr John Dragicevich, Manager, Infrastructure and Environmental services, Auckland Council has taken the stand.
10:07am - The Coroner highlights the need for recommendations to focus on these hazards, in hindsight of the tragedy. Mr Challis says he “certainly recommends a safety grill for every manhole”. $180 to manufacture, $300 to fit so $500 all up, times the 42,000 regularly surcharging manholes in the area. Mr Challis says “there was no procedure at the time for an interim solution to the surcharging manhole”.
9:48am - The third day of the inquest into the death of Aisling Symes starts with Mr Stephen Challis, a storm water serviceman who had attended 5 Longburn Road, returning to the stand.
Mr Challis raised a CCTV request with BBS regarding the storm water drain Aisling fell down, but there appeared to be a problem in returning the CCTV DVD to Mr Challis. Had the DVD been returned, Mr Challis said he would have taken action over the drain, hoping to find “a final solution” after years of the drain consistently being flushed but still flooding.
The DVD was incorrectly filed so Mr Challis never saw it, until after the tragedy occurred. Mr Challis says it should have taken a couple of hours to have the manhole refitted and 10 days for a safety grill to be fitted, if needed. One hour is the guideline to make the manhole safe. Since the tragedy, Mr Challis says a new design of manhole cover and grid have been designed for public safety. At the time, the grids were not readily available on the market as it took a while to construct them.
source: newshub archive
