Calling 911 is not mandated by law in the event of most lawful
accidents, be it cave related or not. For example, if someone falls in
their back yard and breaks their arm or leg, they are not required to
call 911. A trip to the ER may be warranted but it is not required to
call emergency services to provide the transportation. In many
situations it may be advantageous to call 911 though not required.
Many Emergency Medical Services (EMS) can provide advanced care (pain
meds, cardiac care, anaphylactic meds, etc) that otherwise may not be
readily available and can have a large baring on the final outcome.
However, it does become a requirement to call the authorities when
there is a death. The area is considered a crime scene if the person
or persons are deceased. As this pertains to Cave events, 911 would
only be mandated if there were a death. Though, the level of advanced
care that potentially could be offered by EMS should be considered.
A statement made earlier was a good perspective: "I think common sense
would dictate that an "accident" is 911 worthy when you've exhausted
your personal resources/contacts or feel that they may not be
adequate." . Many times a "rescue" can be accomplished by the caving
party. There are times when outside help will be needed. Where that
help comes from will be different for each situation. It may be local
cavers called to help or it may be from the 911 system. There are many
911 systems that have excellent cave rescue capabilities. Some have
none.
I would recommend, if someone has a major injury that 911 be
contacted. Often the EMS personnel can work with you to provide the
advanced medical care the patient needs. I would absolutely recommend
that when there is a fatality, 911 must be contacted. When making that
phone call inform the operator of the complexity of the cave. Inquire
as to their abilities to perform cave rescue. Ask for the phone number
for the agency responsible for cave rescue. Many of these
organizations will be receptive to suggestions or recommendations for
outside help.
Once contacted local authorities have a legal obligation to respond
and provide "assistance" and will do the best they can with what they
have and know. I am a large proponent of integrating cavers into cave
rescues. Though this can be a tricky issue. I would strongly urge
everyone to build a relationship with emergency response organizations
in the areas you cave. Try to build those relationships and link them
up with training specific to cave rescue. Help them become aware of
the difficulties, specialized training, special equipment, etc. This
will help with integrating cavers into future rescue efforts. There is
no question that cavers have knowledge, skills, and abilities that the
average rescuer does not have. The same is true in the reverse, the
average rescuer has knowledge, skills, and abilities that the average
caver does not. The solution is to merge these two together. Combine
training opportunities will help with integrating the two groups
together.
Throughout the US the National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC) has
worked to make cave rescue a more readily available resource. NCRC
offers Orientation to Cave Rescue's (OCR's). These OCR's are meant to
provide an introduction to both of these groups as to what the others
capabilities are. Additionally there are week long training seminars,
teaching cave rescue skills. NCRC also has Regional Coordinators who
can help provide training, aid in identifying rescue recourses and
equipment, etc. NCRC is not a rescue team and cannot respond as such.
Ultimately decisions will be made by the caving party and by
responding agencies. NCRC's website and future training events can be
found at ncrc.info
Stay Safe,
DJ
DJ Walker
PO Box 90146
Austin, TX 78709
512-751-6010
dj.wal...@mac.com
On Nov 30, 2009, at 1:44 AM, Brian Riordan wrote:
This law about calling 911 seems subjective. If we were required by
law everytime there was a cave "accident" (whatever that is) I think I
would have called it at least a half a dozen times by now. There are
plenty of times I've been with someone "stuck" or have been stuck
myself for far longer than I'd ever care for. Each time it has taken
a great amount of willpower to remain calm, ignore the cramps and just
stop moving and think for a few minutes. I've also had times where it
was so tight, I felt like I was moving more with my ribs than with any
help my arms could provide. I've grabbed a friends ankles and
repeated the inch-worm movements backwards to pull them out of a tight
spot. I can't imagine what chaos would have ensued if I had called
911 instead.
I think common sense would dictate that an "accident" is 911 worthy
when you've exhausted your personal resources/contacts or feel that
they may not be adequate. And as far as caves go, I think my few
contacts may be more adequate than most teams that 911 may put
together for these specialist rescues.
my $.02
-B
On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 1:01 AM, David <dlocklea...@gmail.com> wrote:
I feel like I have posted this before, but can't remember.
Back in 1995, caver's gathered in the Sierra Alvarez for the 3rd
Mexpeleo.
There was a female on rope in and found her self upside-down in a
tight vertical crevice. The cave was only about 1/4 mile from
camp.
Her husband rushed back to
camp and found a group of about 7 cavers huddled around a campfire
trying to stay warm.
He was practically in tears begging for a cave rescue. We all just
looked at him like a deer caught in headlights. But one caver stepped
up and went and rescued her. I will let him tell the story as he is
still an active caver in the U.T. Grotto, and probably on Cavetex.
I stood outside the entrance trying to use my Spanish to help with
the
Red Cross Rescue Team that had showed up. I am not sure where they
came from or why they were there so quickly. Maybe the were
attending Mexpeleo ? Anyways, there were about 20 of them, but
only one looked like he was prepared to go caving. They didn't go
in
the cave, but they did
help on the surface, after she came out.
My memory tells me, that had that caver not rescued her, I might have
had to put on my gear and go down there. I think the reason I
didn't gear up was that I heard there was some tight crawling to get
to her.
Factors affecting the rescue were the weather was miserable ( fog and
cold, I think ), and all the experienced cavers were gone on the
other
side of the "cordillera", in a cave that had a 700 foot drop. They
were not expected back for at least 10 hours.
I only bring all this up, because it could have been bad.
There was another accident the next day. A caver got lost in the
fog
in the middle of the night. A search team spent hours looking for
him. I don't know the
outcome of that, but I presume he was found. A person could easily
step off into a pit up there in the fog. There were something like
80 pits within a mile of camp. I would love to go back up there
someday.
Feel free to correct any of this or to add to it.
David Locklear
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