Source: Radio New Zealand
A white water raft goes over Tutea Falls on the Kaituna River. Supplied
Maritime New Zealand has apologised for an error that contributed to delays in releasing a coroner’s report into the river rafting death of a woman near Rotorua in August, 2020.
In his report into the death of 61-year-old Wellington woman Vivienne Pincott released on Tuesday, Coroner Michael Robb blamed Maritime New Zealand and Police for taking too long to provide some files, reports and evidence that led to the delay in releasing his findings.
Pincott died from severe injuries while white water rafting a class-five rapid that contained a seven metre drop.
She was being guided down the Tutea Falls on the Kaituna River.
In his report, Coroner Robb said even though the drop had been undertaken without fatal consequences by many others prior to Pincott’s death, the circumstances highlighted the risks of rafting on such fast moving white water.
“Safety considerations including the wearing of an appropriately sized and fitted lifejacket and helmet must be maintained, but as the circumstances of Vivienne’s death highlight, this may not provide complete protection against a fatal outcome in what is an inherently dangerous activity,” he said.
‘We unreservedly apologise’
In his report, Coroner Robb acknowledged the delay between Pincott’s death and the release of his findings.
“That delay was in large part the result of the report directed by the Coroners Court to be provided from Maritime New Zealand not being provided until 6 May 2024, nearly four years after Vivienne’s death,” he said.
“That delay was then contributed to by the New Zealand Police not providing their investigation file to the Coroners Court until April 2025, four years and eight months after Vivienne’s death.”
Coroner Robb said Maritime New Zealand had acknowledged and apologised for the delay in providing their report explaining that the delay occurred due to “internal circumstances relating to the file and the historical ways in which such matters were managed” at the time.
In a statement, Maritime New Zealand confirmed that the Coroner’s Office request for information into Pincott’s death was missed due to an administrative error.
“We extend our condolences to the family of Ms Pincott for her loss and acknowledge that the delay in finalising the Coroner’s report will have added to their distress. We unreservedly apologise to the Coroner and Ms Pincott’s family for the extended period it took for us to provide the material,” it said.
“Since 2021 we have put in place a new team, systems and processes to manage notifications and requests from the Coroner’s Office and other enquiries, which includes more stringent tracking of reports and cases.
“We are sure a delay of this nature will not happen again.”
In his report, Coroner Robb said that the greatest delay in releasing his findings was due to delays caused by the gap in Maritime New Zealand providing its report to Rotorua Police.
”However, a further year of delay was caused by the Rotorua Police not forwarding that report to the Coroners Court until April, 2025,” he said.
The coroner said that the police took years to sign off written statements from officers who had been working the day Pincott was injured. Some of the officers had left in that time.
In a statement, Rotorua Area Commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika said the police carried out an investigation, as directed by the coroner.
“We accept there was an unnecessary delay in the coronial process caused, in part, by Police,” he said.
“As noted in the report, shortly after Ms Pincott’s death, New Zealand was placed in a COVID19 level 4 lockdown. This unprecedented event consumed much of our available resource and led to a backlog of coronial files,” Ngawhika said.
“We acknowledge the impact of this delay on Ms Pincott’s family and friends and offer our sincere condolences.”
In his report, Coroner Robb said he did not take over the file until December 2025 after the inquiry had been tranferred from the orginal coroner.
“The coroner to whom the inquiry had been reassigned discovering a conflict of interest upon review of the disclosure when it was received in April, 2025. This resulted in the inquiry needing to be transferred to me, as the third assigned coroner,” he said.
“That transfer occurred in December, 2025.”
Coroner Robb said his review of the evidence in December 2025 revealed that there were gaps in the evidence that had been gathered by the police resulting in further reports being sought
from both the rafting company and Maritime New Zealand.
“A fortnight later I received a thorough and comprehensive report from the rafting company (Rotorua Adventures New Zealand – under which River Rats was operating at the time), which addressed all issues that I had raised with both the company and Maritime New Zealand,” he said.
“On 29 January 2026 I received the additional report requested from Maritime New Zealand.”
‘Extremely rare injury’
At the time of her death, Pincott was holidaying with her 25-year-old son, Bryden Frizell.
Although the coroner’s report noted previous heart problems she was described as a “fit and healthy” woman who had taken part in other physical activities without issue.
The River Rats raft she and Bryden were on had successfully navigated several other drops, before guides took it over the final seven metre – class five – waterfall.
Coroner Robb said that the raft initially became momentarily submerged and full of water at the bottom of the waterfall before resurfacing.
Video evidence showed that when the raft resurfaced, there were only three occupants on board.
“The two guides were in their original positions and Bryden remained in the front of the raft, but having been washed or jolted from his original right hand seat position towards his left occupying, or partially occupying where his mother had been seated,” he said.
Pincott resurfaced some 10-15 seconds later, before being rescued by guides.
Although initially concious and able to talk, she deteriorated and collapsed before emergency services arrived.
The coroner’s report said that, despite resuscitation efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
A post-mortem found that Pincott suffered severe traumatic injuries.
“What I wanted to understand was whether this extremely rare injury sustained by Vivienne was a consequence of something environmentally unusual, such as overly high or low river flow, technique or navigation issue that occurred at the time, or any other identifiable difference to the multiple other uneventful navigations of the Tutea Falls,” Coroner Robb said.
The coroner concluded it was most likely that Pincott was driven into rocks or the riverbed after being ejected from the raft.
While such incidents were extremely rare given the large number of people who had rafted Tutea Falls, the coroner found that her death was the result of the inherent risks of white-water rafting, even when safety procedures were followed.
The rafting company, River Rats, had changed ownership since Pincott’s death.
The new owners, and Pincott’s family were approached for comment.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/24/coroner-blames-maritime-nz-police-for-delay-of-findings-on-vivienne-pincotts-river-rafting-death/