cave rescue statistics
- Thread starter oldboy
- Start date
JasonC
Well-known member
Quite so. I always find it interesting that a sport perceived as being recklessly dangerous generates so few accidents. The majority of the CRO "cave"-related call-outs are folk being a bit late out or a bit lost - obviously not best practice, but no harm to life or limb involved.
In fact, CRO stats conclusively "prove" that walking is far more dangerous than caving !
In fact, CRO stats conclusively "prove" that walking is far more dangerous than caving !
I was wondering the same thing so thought I'd take a closer look at the figures from CRO over the 15 years on their website (2000-2014):
There have been anywhere between 4 & 11 rescues each year, totalling 100, so average between 6 & 7.
There have also been another 0 to 11 call outs where the cavers got themselves out, totalling 52, averaging between 3 & 4 per year. About half of these the team found on the surface,mostly being overdue (the rest they located before deploying) - although 14 of them had been lost, injured or flooded in and could well have required a rescue if anything else had gone against them.
There were a further 6 rescues from showcaves.
So cave rescues haven't changed much over that period, however, the total incidents attended has increased from an average of c.48 for the first half to c.70 for the second half (including mountain and animal rescues etc), but how much this is due to an increase in numbers on the fells & how much to the police calling on the team sooner is unclear.
Mike
(My figures may not be 100% correct as I may have missed some incidents, but give a good indication of numbers involved. CRO figures include deployments as well as actual rescues and assisting other teams - which I haven't included if outside the Dales area.)
There have been anywhere between 4 & 11 rescues each year, totalling 100, so average between 6 & 7.
There have also been another 0 to 11 call outs where the cavers got themselves out, totalling 52, averaging between 3 & 4 per year. About half of these the team found on the surface,mostly being overdue (the rest they located before deploying) - although 14 of them had been lost, injured or flooded in and could well have required a rescue if anything else had gone against them.
There were a further 6 rescues from showcaves.
So cave rescues haven't changed much over that period, however, the total incidents attended has increased from an average of c.48 for the first half to c.70 for the second half (including mountain and animal rescues etc), but how much this is due to an increase in numbers on the fells & how much to the police calling on the team sooner is unclear.
Mike
(My figures may not be 100% correct as I may have missed some incidents, but give a good indication of numbers involved. CRO figures include deployments as well as actual rescues and assisting other teams - which I haven't included if outside the Dales area.)
cap n chris
Well-known member
mikem said:
Nice piece of work there MikeM - thanks for going to the effort compiling the info.
Others may be able to confirm my suspicion that the reason there was a major average differential of c.48 in the first half to c.70 in the second half of your 2000-2014 date window was the huge impact/devastation caused by the 2001 Foot & Mouth Outbreak effectively closing the countryside and during which, and the years following, caving took a massive hit.
kay
Well-known member
Cap'n Chris said:
Confused, but don't have time to look at the moment - isn't the increase from 48 to 70 in all incidents, including animal rescues, Waterfall Walk etc (and non-caver incidents probably make up the majority of CRO work)? So yes, Foot-and-Mouth would have had a big effect, since it affected walkers as well as cavers, but the specific effect on cavers wouldn't have affected the all-incidents average to a great degree. I may be talking rubbish!
The foot & mouth year didn't affect my average of total incidents as I didn't use the highest & lowest figures for each half of the period - including the 16 call outs in 2001 & 55 in 2003 still gives an average of 45. The latter half average is still 70 with all years included.
Interestingly there were still 4 rescues in 2001, which was equalled in 2002, 2012 & 2013. There were 11 rescues in both 2000 & 2006.
Mike
Interestingly there were still 4 rescues in 2001, which was equalled in 2002, 2012 & 2013. There were 11 rescues in both 2000 & 2006.
Mike
The number of incidents for 2000 to 2008 were all between 42 & 55 (except for 2001 foot & mouth when 16), between 2009 & 2014 it varied from 62 to 88, so definitely an increase and some of this would have been due to the police and farmers having better awareness of the CRO and thus calling them out for "other" incidents.
Mike
Mike
damo8604
New member
It's an interesting topic, I might be inclined to do a bit more number crunching later on when I get time, anyway..... the OP asked 'has caving become safer', with this in mind it might be worthwhile to categorize the type of call out. The CRO do a good job of indicating whether the call out is animal/fell/cave related however it is worth noting that of the 53 callouts from 2000-2005 (which equate to 20% of the total CRO callouts for this period)
Of these Cave related call outs, 4% were f*@k ups (cavers, forgot to sign back in or put the wrong date on the call out board)
8% were to assist police investigations
15% were overdue cavers, either found during preliminary investigations or met returning from the caves
4% were incidents relating to show caves, likely to be elderly folk suffering heart attacks etc
this leaves 37 actual rescues (70%) of which 5 were fatalities.
If we are talking purely caving fatalities in the UK, the 60's-80's showed similar numbers - 23 in the 60's, 26 in both the 70's & 80's, falling to 18 in the 90's, 14 in the noughties and so far 2 in the period 2010 to 14.
Of these Cave related call outs, 4% were f*@k ups (cavers, forgot to sign back in or put the wrong date on the call out board)
8% were to assist police investigations
15% were overdue cavers, either found during preliminary investigations or met returning from the caves
4% were incidents relating to show caves, likely to be elderly folk suffering heart attacks etc
this leaves 37 actual rescues (70%) of which 5 were fatalities.
If we are talking purely caving fatalities in the UK, the 60's-80's showed similar numbers - 23 in the 60's, 26 in both the 70's & 80's, falling to 18 in the 90's, 14 in the noughties and so far 2 in the period 2010 to 14.
nickwilliams
Well-known member
Simon Beck
Member
I laughed out loud in the queue at tesco's garage last week on seeing the front cover of the Craven Herald.
nickwilliams said:
It includes an analysis of rescues between 1989 & 1998, of which CRO had 147 call outs, about 25% were overdue / assisting police, so approx. 110 actual rescues or 11 per year:
http://www.caverescue.org.uk/IREPPDF/ANAL8998.pdf
Mike
& of the rescues listed on UWFRA website between 2000 & 2014, 7 were with the CRO, 3 got themselves out, leaving about 7 additional rescues in 10 years (when added to the CRO figures this gives an average of just over 7 per year):
http://www.uwfra.org.uk/CalloutsHistoric
For 1989 to 1998, UWFRA are listed with 37 call outs, so removing 25% leaves c.28 actual rescues - adding the CRO figures = 138 rescues or 14 per year, so it does appear that the number of rescues has halved (although we don't know how many of these involved both organisations).
So we appear to be back to the original question - have numbers of cavers fallen or are they safer now? The kit has certainly improved allowing us to be in better shape during extended stays underground.
Mike
http://www.uwfra.org.uk/CalloutsHistoric
For 1989 to 1998, UWFRA are listed with 37 call outs, so removing 25% leaves c.28 actual rescues - adding the CRO figures = 138 rescues or 14 per year, so it does appear that the number of rescues has halved (although we don't know how many of these involved both organisations).
So we appear to be back to the original question - have numbers of cavers fallen or are they safer now? The kit has certainly improved allowing us to be in better shape during extended stays underground.
Mike
damo8604
New member
I think it's a case of 'all of the above'......
Have the number of active cavers fallen over the years? Difficult to quantify but yes! You could gather data from clubs and count the no of members but that is also a bit of a red herring as not all active cavers are members of clubs and some members of clubs aren't actually active cavers.
Caving techniques have got better, gone are the days of flying by the seat of your pants - again, not really in a position to back up this statement as I wasn't even a twinkle in my Daddy's eye back then, but comparing reports and stories from various books to my personal experience of caving since the 90's, I would say we have a safer attitude to caving.
Equipment has improved significantly, you might get the odd hardcore caver who still insists on fixing everything with gaffer tape but generally cavers are properly equipped with PPE, clothing and lighting.
So, in summary, yes caving numbers have dwindled but I would say we are safer cavers now!
(just my opinion)
Have the number of active cavers fallen over the years? Difficult to quantify but yes! You could gather data from clubs and count the no of members but that is also a bit of a red herring as not all active cavers are members of clubs and some members of clubs aren't actually active cavers.
Caving techniques have got better, gone are the days of flying by the seat of your pants - again, not really in a position to back up this statement as I wasn't even a twinkle in my Daddy's eye back then, but comparing reports and stories from various books to my personal experience of caving since the 90's, I would say we have a safer attitude to caving.
Equipment has improved significantly, you might get the odd hardcore caver who still insists on fixing everything with gaffer tape but generally cavers are properly equipped with PPE, clothing and lighting.
So, in summary, yes caving numbers have dwindled but I would say we are safer cavers now!
(just my opinion)
I agree Damien,
Certainly the BEC had more members join in the first half of their history, than they have in the second half, however, there are a lot of smaller clubs around, many of whom aren't members of the BCA, but that was probably also the case back in the day (before the existence of the BCA).
Mike
Certainly the BEC had more members join in the first half of their history, than they have in the second half, however, there are a lot of smaller clubs around, many of whom aren't members of the BCA, but that was probably also the case back in the day (before the existence of the BCA).
Mike
