Risk Management is something every ski patroller should be aware of and practice, but is all too often forgotten or put off until later — until after the accident investigation and paperwork are completed. We should be considering risk management as part of the immediate response to the accident. Our job is not only to take care of the injured or ill guests; it is also to prevent injuries from happening. Another very important part of our job is to protect the ski area from future liability as a result of an injury where a piece of man-made equipment is involved, is covered under the inherent risk of skiing statute. For example, a guest collides with another guest on the hill, there is a death on the property, or other unusual circumstance that just does not feel right to you as a normal occurrence at a ski mountain must be managed.
Any of these unusual occurrences should trigger an accident investigation. How your mountain deals with an accident investigation should be dictated by your insurance carrier. They should have provided your ski area with an accident investigation kit containing the forms and procedures.
One important part of this kind of incident is early notification of mountain management so corrective action, if required, can be instituted before someone else is injured in the same manner. This is one portion of accident investigation which is often overlooked or delayed until much later in the process. Ski Patrol should actively manage this type of risk by preventing the same occurrence from happening again, or by proactively seeking out potential hazards and mitigating them before an accident can happen.
Recently I helped out with an OEC exam. The scenario was a snowboarder who had used an area fence near the lodge as a rail. He caught a broken portion of the fence and fell, causing several injuries. The responding patrollers all did a great job of managing the injured guest, taking care of the injuries and getting him to First Aid. What they did not identify was the broken fence that could be a hazard for other people doing the same thing. Area management should have been notified so that the fence could have been repaired. Not one person that day suggested this as an option. While a snowboarder using a fence as a rail may seem to be so out of place that it could never happen again. If it did happen once — then it could again.
I have found a couple of apps for my smart phone, that can assist with accident investigation. The first app is Utilities on the I-Phone. Under UTILITIES is a COMPASS. By swiping the compass to the side you get an inclinometer. It can be aligned with the slope to give angle. The next, and by far a better resource is THEODOLITE. This one costs $3.99 but is a great one for on hill investigation. Some of the highlights include, latitude and longitude, percent of slope, compass direction, altitude, and time. The one thing it does not list is date. Date can be included in another mode that does not give you percentage of slope. Nothing however is better than an old-fashioned tape measure and a set of distances to known, fixed objects such as lift towers and light poles to show exact location.
Everyone has a cell phone and a lot of people are carrying Go-Pro cameras or other recording devices. You can often find someone who recorded the incident, and will be willing to come with you to first aid for you to download the image and add it to your accident investigation file. Be sure to get all important information from the photographer for your records so they can be found again if the incident goes to court.
In conclusion, add a risk management elements to your partoller activities. Incorporate modern tools to your accident investigation. Look for help from witnesses, find creative ways to utilize the skiing public’s technology toys, such as GoPro videos. Look for guidance on accident investigation from your ski area’s insurance carrier.
