Reference no: EM133362294

Nina and her 18-year-old daughter, Eve, go on a weekend camping trip in the beautiful Blue Mountains State Park. They drive into the park and see a well-cleared and maintained camping ground set up by the Park for camping with eco-toilets nearby. However, there are already many campers there. As they want more space, they find a place some distance from the cleared camping ground area, near a huge and beautiful mountain ash tree. The ground is uncleared and wild, but they clear an area anyway and set up their tent there.

Immediately behind the tree is a logging road, which a logging company, Pinetop Pty Ltd, built in the previous year to enable it to access a pine plantation near the edge of the State Park. The side of the road is built up significantly next to and indeed against the tree creating a large embankment.

That evening, after cooking dinner, Nina and Eve, fall asleep in their tent. That night, there is a major storm with heavy rain and unusually strong winds. Around 2 am, the mountain ash tree falls and lands on the tent and on their legs, causing serious injuries to their legs. Some campers call for an ambulance which gets there using the logging road as the main road into the camp site is flooded. The ambulance reaches the area where Nina and Eve are, and the two ambulance officers climb down the roadside embankment to get to the two women. They carry down a stretcher with retractable wheels which tuck up into the stretcher when not needed. They would normally have used their lighter, basic 'board' stretcher without wheels in this situation. However, it is away being repaired at the time. So, they manoeuvre the wheeled stretcher (with wheels tucked up) down the embankment and manage to get Eve onto it and carry her back up the embankment into the ambulance successfully. However, as they are carrying Nina up the embankment to the van, the stretcher's wheels accidently drop down and get stuck on a large rock. This jars the back of one of the officers, Bob, carrying the stretcher. He is later diagnosed with a damaged back and is off work for three months and eventually needs back surgery.

Nina and Eve have suffered two broken legs each and need extensive skin grafts on their legs to replace the damaged skin and muscle area. Both are off work for nine months and have substantial medical expenses and ongoing psychological trauma.

Advise the various parties of their legal rights and liabilities, including possible remedies, referring to any relevant cases and legislation.