Unimog in a ditch prompts changes - but police have little to say about them

Police have made changes to flood rescues after problems rescuing some hypothermic elderly people stuck in a ditch - but without keeping any record of the discussions they had about the problems.

RNZ asked police for their debrief about a Defence Unimog getting stuck with a dozen people on board in the fatal floods that hit the Bay of Plenty (BOP) in January.

First they said they didn't have one, then that they did but that no records were kept of it - yet they changed flood rescue systems as a result of those discussions anyway.

They have not detailed how.

'Tractor has had water over bonnet'

Alerts went out around midnight on 21-22 January about cars stuck in floodwaters on Waitoa Road near Papamoa.

The NZDF Unimog was not meant to be used for rescues, only for transport, but got sent anyway with several police and firefighters on board.

Some time after 2am it rescued four elderly people but got stuck just after 3am in a culvert.

It was an hour before a swift water rescue team of firefighters at Rotorua was "gearing up", according to incident reports. They had not been predeployed. They eventually got to the Unimog about 6.30am.

"Patients going into mild hyperthermia due to spending approximately 4 hours in flood waters and rain," a FENZ report said.

The team "ended up having to rescue the rescuers" and someone could have died, the swift water team leader said in internal emails later.

A police report showed that during the wait for the swift water team, other rescuers tried and failed with a tractor.

"Tractor has had water over bonnet. Water 2m deep," came their radio call around 5am on 22 January.

In a second rescue, in March at a cliff north of Auckland, police also did not follow up on a promised debrief with other agencies, RNZ inquiries have established.

Police have previously told RNZ, "All SAROPs [search and rescue operations] are formally debriefed, and lessons are documented and applied to future operations."

'No review' v 'A debrief was held'

Asked by RNZ for a copy of the Unimog rescue debrief, police at first said there wasn't one.

"No post-event review has been undertaken at this time," they said in an Official Information Act (OIA) response on 2 July.

"A formal de-brief of the incident is planned."

RNZ then asked what value there might be in such a debrief if it took place at least six months after the event.

Police in reply changed their position.

"Immediately following the response to the incident involving a Unimog at Welcome Bay, a debrief was held with the police staff involved, as is standard," said BOP district search and rescue manager Phil Gillbanks in a statement on Monday.

RNZ then asked for a copy of that debrief, noting it should have been released in the original OIA response.

But police on Wednesday said the debrief involved "conversations ... sometimes referred to as hot debriefs".

"We did not include that in the OIA response because it was not a formal review and no notes or written record were created to pass on to you," said BOP district commander Superintendent Will Loughrin in a statement.

"That is normal for conversations after an event.

"We have planned an operational de-brief in coming weeks."

The OIA is meant to cover not just written records but also conversations when they involve public information.

No record but changes made anyway

Despite keeping no record of the Unimog debrief, police have still acted on it.

They said on Monday that they discussed the rescue with Fire and Emergency (FENZ) and Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLS).

SLS's crew helped FENZ's swift water team get people from the Unimog into a raft - in water that had been 1.5m deep but by then was falling - and out to a helicopter sitting on a dry piece of road a few hundred metres away.

These discussions "highlighted areas where small coordination improvements could be made between specialist groups within the search and rescue (SAR) response in a swift water flood incident", Gillbanks said.

"These discussions have now informed subsequent improvements to coordination and operational processes between all SAR partners in water-based scenarios."

RNZ asked police if it was standard practice to change rescue systems without keeping any record of the discussions that led up to that.

'More education with police'

An after-action review of the Unimog rescue was done by FENZ's swift water team (SWRT), which RNZ has reported on before.

In that review they said, "FENZ, Police and Army staff that needed rescuing were transported back to staging area by FENZ rafts ... the extra staff from Surf expediated [sic] the rescue."

But, "breakdown in communication caused a late despatch of when SWRT was deployed to this incident".

And in another review a few weeks later after a delayed rescue near Ōtorohanga, the same FENZ team wrote, "Needs to be discussion at GM level and above with their Police counterparts about what we can do and when to call for us, ie earlier the better, also who is in control.

"More education with police who we are what we can do and the need to deploy early."

Search and rescue agencies including the police, FENZ, ambulance and the Rescue Coordination Centre run by Maritime NZ have been struggling with old and fragmented communications systems, prompting a telecommunications review last year, internal documents show.

When RNZ asked for records about the comms problems and any work on a solution, police said in an OIA response they did not have any.

The various agencies have agreed to overhaul how rescue aviation, especially choppers, is coordinated after a series of problems.

Second rescue - other agencies not debriefed

Police said the formal Unimog debrief would include the wider Op Sunbrae operation.

Sunbrae was the police response to the storm that triggered a fatal landslide at the Mt Maunganui campground in January. Various official investigations are underway into that.

In the second rescue in March, a woman was stuck on a sea cliff at Tāwharanui Peninsula near Warkworth for about five hours on a cold, windy night.

She would have been stuck for longer had police had their way and stood down a FENZ team of rope-rescue-trained firefighters who eventually got her out near midnight, incident reports showed.

Police told RNZ last week that a verbal internal team debrief was done of the cliff rescue but no notes were recorded so they had none to release under the OIA.

"The debrief discussed aspects of the police operation," said the acting district commander of Waitematā Inspector Matt Laurenson.

It was agreed to engage with other "external agencies to undertake a formal debrief".

However, "At this time no formal debrief of this incident has taken place between police and any external agencies," said Laurenson.

On Wednesday police said the type of follow-up after a rescue was determined "on a case-by-case basis".

In this case they decided against a formal review and had discussions with FENZ instead, said district operations manager Inspector Vaughn Graham.

The result?

"Both Police and Fire and Emergency have committed to improve inter-agency communications around deployment of available resources and assets."

Concerns on both sides - FENZ

FENZ earlier told RNZ that:

- Police raised a "minor" concern with FENZ about its cliff rescue team from Auckland self-deploying to the peninsula.

- And the cliff rescue team raised concern "about the time it took" for police to alert them - about half an hour.

FENZ did not do an after-action report or hot debrief.

Its rescue team got to the cliff in just over an hour, well ahead of a police team that took almost three hours to get there.

Yet a police incident report shows their team complaining from the carpark above the cliff, "Fenz line team have self deployed to patient without communicating recovery plan."

Both agencies have previously told RNZ they collaborated and communicated well. Both are on the search and rescue (NZSAR) council.

"Police share a positive and constructive relationship with all agencies involved in SAR operations," said Gillbanks on Monday.

"We value the strong partnerships and open lines of communication that support our collective response capabilities."