My Canal Trips from Fakenham High School and College required a risk assessment of 22 pages for Norfolk County Council. The sort of questions that had to be answered included:. Are the balconies locked? Is anyone sleeping at ground floor level? Is there hot and cold water? Yes - cold in the plastic water container and hot in the kettle!!! and so on. Then we had to do a specific risk assessment - which I always did in the correct canal language: There is a risk of damaging fingers when strapping a butty to a bollard. Now, no one ever asked me what it meant - but I knew that all my kids were very aware of the very real danger. As to the accidents that did occur - I must admit I hadn't had the vision to include them in the risk assessment until the following year: Being sunk by a safety buffer on Anderton Lift. Having tree blown down in front of boat, Having ice cut through the hull... I am sure the Risk Assessments kept and keep people employed - but putting it on paper doesnot replace the practical commonsense that one follows on the ground in an actual situation - nor replace proper training in the first place. Ivan Cane
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