Rescue, 20th June 2006

[cap n chris]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/5099272.stm

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=200174&command=displayContent&sourceNode=200173&home=yes&more_nodeId1=133168&contentPK=14724759

 

[bubba]

Oh no, it was an "amateur" caving expedition! How many "pro caving expeditions" go on the UK I wonder

 

[graham]

Oh no, it was an "amateur" caving expedition! How many "pro caving expeditions" go on the UK I wonder

Ahem  :read:

A spokesman for the DCRO .... said the school party had been caving with a qualified instructor when the woman slipped.

I thought you were meant to be safe with one of them? 

 

[SamT]

Blimey - bit of long trip for DCRO. 

Oh - that DCRO  - Good effort folks.

Anyone on here in DevCRO

 

[Roger W]

Ah - managed to get the "This is Plymouth" page: BBC news unavailable here (as usual).

The account there seems quite reasonable, though the headline makes it look as if she fell down something like Titan!

Hope she's up and about (or should I say 'down and about'?) again soon!

 

[cap n chris]

The person sustaining the injury was experienced sufficiently to be the assistant leader.

The story uses the word instructor for the person leading the trip but there's a BIG difference between a qualified instructor and a qualified leader. Association of Caving Instructors doesn't have Mr. R. King on its list (although this doesn't mean he is NOT an instructor - just that he is not listed as one with the ACI).

 

[cap n chris]

I thought you were meant to be safe with one of them?

Do you believe children would be safer if taken underground by unqualified leaders, Graham?

 

[graham]

Well, all I can say is that in the thirty years I've been involved with running novice trips with the UBSS, we've never dropped one. We've had our share of "incidents" involving more experienced people but none, as yet, involving complete novices.

 

[Carthusian Monk]

The caualty appeared fine in her post-incident-photo (with Muddy helmet and lamp) in the Western Morning News. A nice end to an unfortunate incident.

Top tip: never use the word safe; you set yourself up, as did the BMG. Mountain guiding is anything but safe, which was spotted by a die-hard anti BMG individual  and used to successfully sue them under the trade descriptions act.

 

[dunc]

From BBC site :A spokesman for the DCRO said the caves were regularly used for caving activities and are known to be safe.

Seems a bit silly saying a cave is known to be safe, or is that a media twist on words? How can any cave be deemed to be safe....??

 

[Roger W]

I suppose a cave could be deemed to be safe if the roof was in no danger of collapsing, there were no unstable boulder chokes, and no risk of flooding...

Other than that sort of risk, you could say it is the cavers themselves that are unsafe, abseiling off the end of their rope, falling off of ledges and tripping over their own feet.....