美国国家公共电台 NPR 新西兰白岛火山喷发致16人死 受害者及家属不能提起诉讼（在线收听）

Recovery teams in New Zealand are getting ready for what could be a dangerous rescue mission. Here's Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clement.

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MIKE CLEMENT: There is not a zero risk with regards to this plan. It does come with risk.

KING: He says specialists from New Zealand's military will try to recover the bodies of eight people who were buried under ash after a volcano erupted on White Island. Those people are believed to be dead. Eight other people are confirmed dead, and more than 20 people are in intensive care with severe burns.

Charlotte Graham-McLay is a reporter for The Guardian. She's in New Zealand's capital, Wellington. Hi, Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY: Good morning, Noel.

KING: So we are hearing there from officials that this rescue mission could be risky. What makes it so?

GRAHAM-MCLAY: Well, the scientists who are calculating the risk alert said today, and I quote, "today is less safe than yesterday and less safe than the day before that." They say that there's a 50% to 60% chance of another eruption on White Island in the next 24 hours. So in about six to eight hours, when New Zealand Defence Force personnel go to that island, providing the weather and the conditions work out, they will be prepared for every eventuality, including very high levels of gas, and including potentially another eruption.

But the police have come under extraordinary pressure this week from the families and from the public to retrieve those eight bodies. To the extent that the officer in charge, who you've just been hearing from a moment ago, also said that haste may mean that they are not able to preserve all of the identifying markers needed for full identification of those bodies.

KING: Oh, my goodness.

GRAHAM-MCLAY: So that's an unenviable trade-off they may have to make, but they have put the priority on getting those bodies back. At least six of them — they know where six of those people are. They actually don't know where the other two people unaccounted for on the island are, and they have said that they will look for them if they have time. But it's really going to be a get in, get out situation so that they don't put more lives at risk.

KING: Working on a very tight clock there.

GRAHAM-MCLAY: Yeah.

KING: What do we know at this point, Charlotte, about the victims?

GRAHAM-MCLAY: It's a tricky situation because we don't have confirmed who exactly is in hospital, and there were people taken to hospitals without identification and in some cases unable to speak. We last heard, for example, that an American couple on their honeymoon were both in hospital, but we don't know any more about their conditions.

KING: OK.

GRAHAM-MCLAY: The police have released nine names who we know are either part of the eight known to have died or the eight unaccounted for on the island. So there are a couple of New Zealand guides who we know have died. And then there are a number of people from Australia — a father and his 15-year-old stepdaughter, a mother and her 20-year-old daughter are known to have died, an Australian couple in their early 30s and, very sadly, two teenage Australian brothers who both died in different hospitals last night.

KING: And, Charlotte, just very quickly, I know you've been looking into the accident compensation system in New Zealand — what it might mean for victims. What have you found?

GRAHAM-MCLAY: There is basically a system that pays for anyone's treatment who's injured in New Zealand, even if you're a foreigner, even if you don't have health insurance. So that's great. But the flip side of that is that it's a no-fault system, which means that you cannot sue anyone in New Zealand for negligence because you've been covered by that system.

KING: Guardian reporter Charlotte Graham-McLay on Skype from New Zealand. Thanks so much.

GRAHAM-MCLAY: Thank you.

新西兰救援队正在为一场可能面临危险的救援行动做准备。下面是警察局副局长迈克·克莱门特所说。

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迈克·克莱门特：这项计划并不是零风险。而是的确存在风险。

金：他表示，新西兰白岛火山喷发，现在军方专家将试图取回被掩埋在火山灰下面的8具遗体。 这些人被认为已经死亡。另外8人已被证实死亡，还有超过20人因严重烧伤而处于重症监护之中。

夏洛特·格拉汉姆-麦克莱是《卫报》的记者。她现在在新西兰首都惠灵顿。你好，夏洛特。

夏洛特·格拉汉姆-麦克莱：早上好，诺埃尔。

金：我们刚听到官员说，这一救援行动可能有风险。为什么？

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：评估风险预警的科学家表示，“今天的情况比昨天和前天更加危险。”他们表示，白岛在未来24个小时再次发生火山喷发的几率为50%到60%。6个小时以后，新西兰国防人员将前往白岛，如果天气和情况良好，他们要为各种可能性做好准备，包括高浓度气体和可能再次发生的火山爆发。

本周，警方面临着极大压力，遇难者家属和公众要求他们取回8具遗体。刚才那名负责官员还表示，犹豫意味着他们可能无法保存充分确认遗体所需的所有身份标记。

金：哦我的天哪。

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：因此，他们必须做出这种艰难的权衡，不过他们的首要任务是将遗体取回。他们知道其中六具遗体的位置。但目前还不能确定另外两名失踪者在岛上的位置，他们说如果有时间，他们会进行搜寻。但现在必须快去快回，所以他们不会让更多生命遭遇风险。

金：这是争分夺秒的行动。

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：对

金：夏洛特，目前我们对遇难者的情况有何了解？

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：目前情况很棘手，因为我们还没有确认入院治疗者的身份，伤者被送往医院时并没有身份证明，有些人甚至无法说话。我们了解到，一对前往白岛度蜜月的美国夫妻目前都在医院接受治疗，但我们并不清楚他们的具体情况。

金：好。

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：警方公布了9个名字，我们知道这些人要么是已证实死亡的遇难者，要么是在岛上失踪的8个人。遇难者中包括几名新西兰导游。另外，火山喷发时岛上有多名澳大利亚公民，一名父亲和他15岁的继女以及一名母亲和她20岁的女儿已确定死亡，昨晚，一对30初头的澳大利亚夫妻以及一对10多岁的澳大利亚兄弟在不同医院死亡，这真令人难过。

金：夏洛特，还有个小问题，我知道你一直在研究新西兰的事故赔偿制度，这对遇难者来说意味着什么？你有何发现？

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：基本上来说，这个制度会为在新西兰受伤的所有人支付治疗费用，即使伤者是外国人或没有健康保险也不例外。这非常不错。但另一方面，这是无过失制度，也就是说，你不能在新西兰以过失罪名起诉任何人，因为你已经纳入该制度中。

金：以上是《卫报》记者夏洛特·格拉汉姆-麦克莱通过Skype从新西兰和我们进行的连线。非常谢谢你。

格拉汉姆-麦克莱：谢谢。