Abstract
This chapter examines prevention of catastrophic outdoor education incidents involving water. It defines catastrophic incidents as having three or more fatalities. It considers the extent to which past catastrophic incidents could have been prevented had potential lessons from earlier incidents been known and acted on. Sixty-two catastrophic incidents since 1900 are examined, involving almost 400 deaths. Large-scale disasters, caused by events such as hurricanes or tsunamis were not considered. Ferry or shipping disasters are considered in Chap. 5. The chapter begins with a focussed review of literature on drowning prevention, including direct evidence of successful prevention (as distinct from counter-factual case-based evidence), and research on cold-water immersion. The circumstantial nature of immersion deaths and critical role of expert planning for and supervision of youths in water based outdoor education is examined using the 1993 Lyme Bay tragedy as an example. Eighteen similar cases are then examined, involving fleets of small craft on open water. Another nine open water cases involved somewhat different circumstances, but still exhibited patterns of similarity sufficient to inform future prevention. A strong relationship between environmental circumstances, the unfolding of tragedy, and prevention lessons is further established by examination of ocean shore incidents, floods, moving water, and incidents in which attempts to rescue a single victim resulted in multiple deaths.
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Notes
- 1.
“R. v Peter Bayliss Kite”, No. 295 (Cr. App. R.(S) 1996).
- 2.
“R. v Peter Bayliss Kite”, No. 295 (Cr. App. R.(S) 1996).
- 3.
Arguably, all narratives are constructions that attempt to link what are necessarily fragments coherently. See Gough (1994).
- 4.
Court documents referred to two incidents, which might have been a reference to the student being washing in followed by the instructor diving in.
- 5.
Reports of flood-related drowning are numerous, which makes supervised incidents involving young people difficult to locate. “Scout” is a discriminating search term that very often returns youth-related incidents. It is possible I found more Scout related incidents simply because they were easier to find.
- 6.
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Brookes, A. (2018). Multiple Fatality Incidents on School and Youth Group Camps and Excursions – Water-Based Activities: Lessons for Prevention. In: Preventing Fatal Incidents in School and Youth Group Camps and Excursions. International Explorations in Outdoor and Environmental Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89882-7_4
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