Heartache at canyon deaths trial

Rescuers search for survivors following the 1999 tragedy

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland -- A trial over the deaths of 21 people in a canyoning trip has opened with one of the victim's mothers telling how the lives of the teenager's family had been destroyed.

"You can't understand what we live through every day. We see the sun rise and the sun set and birds and trees and everything beautiful, and she isn't here to see it or feel it," said Bronwyn Smith, from Adelaide, Australia.

Smith's 19-year-old daughter, Briana, was one of 18 people -- mostly Australian -- who were swept away and drowned during the trip in a Swiss brook in July 1999. Three guides also died.

Five organisers and two surviving guides are being tried for manslaughter through culpable negligence. They include three directors of the Adventure World company.

Smith said she and husband Paul had not been contacted by anyone from the company after the disaster. "They were too pathetic and gutless," she said.

"We would hope that the judge's decision is right and we would hope that maybe something like this can never, ever happen again. And maybe we would just hope that Adventure World might have the courage to approach us and say how sorry they are."

The Smiths are civil parties to the case, on behalf of the families of the other victims. Relatives of 14 victims are expected to attend the trial, which runs until December 11.

"The most important thing for us is to look the accused in the eye and let them know that we have never thought it was an accident," said Australian Bill Peel, who lost his 27-year-old son, Billy.

The defendants are accused of letting the trip go ahead even though a thunderstorm was clearly visible. Prosecutors say the guides failed to get the group out of the brook even when the water level rose and the water turned muddy. The managers are accused of giving the guides insufficient training.

Canyoning involves jumping, sliding and rappelling down rivers and swimming downstream without a raft.

Stephan Friedli, president of the Adventure World board, who is among the accused, told the court that the tragedy was "unforeseeable and unavoidable."

"I am not conscious of having made a mistake," he said.

Friedli said he put his trust in General Manager Felix Oehrle to decide when it was safe to run the canyoning trips. The company was aware that the water could rise very quickly after bad weather, he said.

The company had a defensive safety policy and trips did not take place if the there was a possibility of danger, he said, but the policy was not written down. He said the company got its weather information from newspapers and other media.

Bruce Tout, whose son Warwick, 28, was among the victims, said he and his wife Sue felt the need to come for the trial.

"I feel that part of Warwick is still here in Switzerland so we had to come to see what happens with the trial. Once this happens, we will never, ever, return," he told reporters.

Under state law, the maximum sentence for the defendants is one year in prison plus a fine.