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Because it's not you who is going to be suing the organisers in the event of your death, it's your next of kin or other dependants
Why sign it then ?
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.Quote:
Because it's not you who is going to be suing the organisers in the event of your death, it's your next of kin or other dependants
Why sign it then ?
The legalese says the organiser has a duty of care to protect the safety of the participants "so far as is reasonably practicable". Realistically, any court (British ones at any rate) would surely take into account the nature of the event and the kind of people participating. Let's not debate the millions of possible scenarios but, given the nature of fellracing - a perfectly wholesome and legal activity - a successful suit for negligence against an organiser is still not a likely outcome in my opinion.
Agreed.
I think Wheeze (who is a Doctor) has alluded somewhere to being involved after the death of the woman who died in the Welsh Relay?
I wonder if he has anything to share about any coroner's "recommendations" after this tragedy?
Its such a shame we have come to this ...the blame culture ! I love that advert on the t.v,where a woman trips over a plastic tie wrap on the floor and receives 4k in compensation !! Surely the judge should have told her "In future,watch where your going" and that should have been the end of it !! We will have guides holding peoples hand over rough terrain next.Unless you are sent over the side of cliffs the only person to blame for injury is yourself ... surely !!
I get this at work,you have to report near miss incidents... where do you draw the line? If a car drives past me and misses me by 3ft is that a near miss ? Maybe,but the fact i was on the pavement waiting to cross the road becomes relavant doesn't it !!:rolleyes:
Fell running was a way of escaping this nonsense,but it is spreading everywhere ....:eek:
Graham, I'm not putting arguments into your mouth. I'm just stating my point of view and trying to illustrate it. These forum debates are better if we resist the urge to personalise issues. Virtually all of my racing occurs on new or relatively new routes in Wales, well away from the 'cradle' of traditional fell running so my views are not formed from an idealised attachment to the old school races. That being said, I will admit I rarely compete in fields larger than 100.
Mud, I abhor the Satans spawn that is the Daily Mail....I would rather read the Sun. At least it is honestly trashy. My info re: the Holocaust comes from someone who is a senior educational manager.
End, you are right, I was very closely involved in the death of a runner. Its an episode I have detailed on the forum before (and alluded to in this thread....she would have never got into trouble if she had the ability to run on one single compass bearing as did others, myself included).
I'll forgive you for a bit then. The actual report is here, and it was (unsurprisngly) spun by the Mail etc when published.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wheeze
And I suppose everyone else wants to blather on about phones, anyway.
When I was in the cubs we had to take 2p for the phonebox, and our neckerchief to use as a slightly grubby triangular bandage. I don't recall either of them being directly useful, but the false sense of security they gave me has stayed like a comforting hug for years.
NEAR MISS - reminds me of the time I was manouvering my van around in a very tight spot. A mate who had his van door open ( and which I had been very carefull to miss by a good couple of inches ) accused me of nearly damaging his van. As I pointed out to him "If the whole purpose of the exercise was for me to drive my van into the door of your van; by now you would be jumping up and down with your arms in the air shouting, 'You've missed. You've missed by a mile'." At the end of the day a miss is a miss regardless of by how much!:pQuote:
Originally Posted by Rodders rambler
A lot of the nonsense that surrounds the whole H&S/Blame Culture/Litigation situation stems from paranoia; Statutory H&S legislation (which DOESN'T apply to our leisure activities) is actually fairly sensible (and quite woolly), and the fear of litigation in common law is often exaggerated.
People in workplaces AND in organisation of liesure or educational activities very often go completely overboard because they are scared witless by the fear of prosecution or litigation, when in actual fact they needn't be. Up to now, British courts (and the HSE) have been pretty sensible and fair-minded about who they prosecute and find negligent. It's the paranoia of the general public (and I include middle managers and some organisers) we need to beware of!
Hence this thread...
So with the blame culture comes the expected liability of organisers to reduce risk to the lowest practical level for the sport. If it was rock climbing that would not be taking away the rocks, but wearing helmets,etc.
I have never been involved in a serious car accident, so does that mean I should rise up agaist the law of wearing a seat belt?
The issue is "is a mobile phone a help to carry on races?"
Or should their be better ways of communication for marshals/more marshals?:mad: (which would defeat half the objective of runners on the fells)
Running without a phone is great when training/just out for a run/jog/walk but on a race?
I agree with GrahamB's sentiments that there are alot of new refugees from other sports (myself included) who do not have the experiance of some top/experianced fell runners and would get hoplessley lost/in trouble.
People say they should be able to read a map, and attend navigation courses, but that does not mean they can read a map in the heat of the moment (just like passing a driving test means you can drive a car)
I think there will be no definitive answer to this debate, and maybe the phone issue will be down to the individual race and only if there is available coverage.
For the last 7 or 8 years, I've made a point of going camping with my two children (leaving the wife behind ;)) in the Lakes or Snowdonia. We've hiked hills, climbed trees, canoed, cliff jumped (what would the Daily Mail say!), swam across lakes, body surfed, waded up and down rocky streams, abseiled, gone 'go ape' and generally done everything that a school field trip finds hard to do nowadays due to H & S issues. And I've loved every minute of it (not sure the kids did mind ;)).
The funniest yet starkest comment we received though as we were setting off to swim to Peel Island on Coniston from the west bank - 'you can't swim in there - you could die within 5 minutes'. It was July, the Lake was relatively warm (well compared to previous escapades anyway) so where the fcuk do these people come from and where the hell do they get their information?