Alpine Association and Mountain Rescue Association and the Police

Alpine Association and Mountain Rescue Association and the Police together for greater safety of mountain visitors.



General Director of the Police Marjan Fank and Presidents of the Alpine Association of Slovenia (PZS) and Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia (GRZS) Bojan Rotovnik and Igor Potočnik signed the annual cooperation plan on Thursday, January 21, 2016, at Ig, thereby setting common goals for this year with an emphasis on enhancing cooperation in the preventive field.



The cooperation plan of the Police and Alpine Association of Slovenia for 2016 includes assistance in renovating alpine trails in the high mountains and assistance in transporting equipment and materials, preparation of a preventive campaign on safer visiting of Slovenian mountains, cooperation of PZS representatives with Police and GRZS patrols in raising awareness among mountain world visitors, joint collection of data on mountain accidents for analysis preparation, provision of the use of the Alpine Educational Center Bavšica for Police needs, provision of data on alpine trails for issuing internal police maps and other internal use, handover of alpine literature to the Police, and cooperation of PZS expert staff in major search operations for missing persons.



The cooperation plan of the Police and Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia for 2016 includes the use of the GRZS training center at Virnikova planina for the needs of training the Police Mountain Unit and training in the field of social skills, cooperation in training in winter techniques or organized avalanche rescue and in mountain search operations, joint implementation of preventive activities in the mountains, cooperation of GRZS members and Special Police Unit in preventive activities at regional and local levels, joint duty during the winter and summer tourist seasons, use of the transport helicopter for training GRZS rescue pilots, joint press conference before the summer alpine season, and Police cooperation at the GRZS instructors' assembly.



General Director of the Police Marjan Fank, President of the Alpine Association of Slovenia Bojan Rotovnik, and President of the Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia Igor Potočnik solemnly signed the annual cooperation plan on January 21, 2016, at the Center for Protection and Rescue at Ig during the regular session of the PZS Executive Board.



"The number of fatal accidents in the mountain world is exceeded only by traffic safety in Slovenia, so unified cooperation is all the more important if we want to achieve improvement," emphasized Police General Director Marjan Fank and added: "Preventive activity is of extraordinary importance in our joint work, so we will continue to invest in mountain safety not only with resources but also with new ideas. I hope we will take another step forward and ensure even greater safety for mountain visitors in all activities, of course under clear rules on what is permitted in our mountains."



"I hope that through cooperation between the alpine association, the Police, and the mountain rescue association we will succeed in limiting the number of accidents in the mountain world, as we recorded a record number last year, more than 420," underlined GRZS President Igor Potočnik in Fank's words, while PZS President Bojan Rotovnik highlighted the importance of joint preventive action: "We are very pleased that the Slovenian Police recognizes civil society organizations such as the Alpine Association of Slovenia and Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia as partners for implementing important joint preventive projects in the mountain world, and in addition, Police assistance in maintaining alpine trails in the high mountains is very important for the alpine organization, which also contributes to increasing the safety of mountain visitors."