Mountain Rescue: "It should never be a question whether someone will call 112 if they need help"
According to the current idea, special mountain insurance would be required on exactly specified more demanding paths
Should hikers who get into trouble due to irresponsibility or negligence pay at least part of the rescue costs themselves? Representatives of rescuers are more in favor of introducing misdemeanors for those who do not follow basic rules, and the introduction of insurance.
For rescuers, the story is simple – they are volunteers in the service of the state who must respond to every call. "Regardless of the cause of the accident or intervention, the only thing we can assess is our own safety and the conditions – to go where it is still safe for the team," Matevž Vučer from the Kranj mountain rescue service told Television Slovenia.
The line between negligence and a coincidence of circumstances is very thin, they say, so rescuers do not judge negligence and do not want to. There are not many rescues due to truly irresponsible actions of individuals, but such cases do occur. If this issue were regulated by a decree, according to the rescuers, the rules should be known in advance and it should be exactly known what and to what extent is charged. "It cannot be the judgment of some individual," emphasized Miha Arh from the Bohinj mountain rescue service.
"At the moment when someone out of fear does not call because, for example, they are not rich enough to pay for helicopter transport, and instead waits injured or takes a step over the edge and we then bring them back in a bag, then something will be very wrong with us and we must not allow that," emphasized Toni Smolej from the Radovljica mountain rescue service. Therefore, according to the representatives of mountain rescuers, it would be more appropriate than paying for rescue to ensure appropriate insurance that would be affordable to all.
But as they estimate, this will not be so easy. There have been many attempts to regulate the area of paying for mountain rescues, but all proposals so far have remained in drawers. Now several ministries are again preparing a decree on the payment of rescue costs when the accident is a consequence of negligence.
More about this was discussed in Odmevi on Television Slovenia by the General Director of the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Protection and Rescue Leon Behin. The entire conversation can be read below.
Rescuers who know the problems related to rescue and payment of intervention costs say that it is impossible to solve them in one year. What is being prepared, when is it being prepared?
I must say that we at the Administration for Protection and Rescue are completely on the same side as the rescuers. It should never be a question whether someone will call 112 if they need help. And the rescuers are not the ones who would charge or in any way receive funds for their rescue, because their mission is to save human lives or distress.
But what are we talking about then? A decree is supposed to be adopted?
Yes, actually, it is about making a regulation in which it will be very clearly specified in which case the costs are charged. The current idea is to go into two different parts. One part would be a misdemeanor, where it could be similar to the arrangement we have in traffic. We all know that we must not drive with summer tires in winter conditions, similarly you must not drive intoxicated and so on. In the mountains, this would apply to cases if you have inappropriate footwear, if you do not have appropriate personal and protective equipment, if you go across a snowfield without crampons and similar.
And this would be precisely defined?
This would be defined and in these cases it could be a misdemeanor, with the procedure itself carried out and the fine imposed only by the misdemeanor authority, these are inspection services, not the rescuers. Here it must also be said that mountain rescuers are only one of the rescuers – we also have cave rescuers, underwater rescuers, firefighters and all others. And an identical system must apply to all rescues, because it was clearly stated by the mountain rescuer that they do not only rescue in the mountains, which we imagine most simply, but also in canyons, during canyoning, hikers, foresters and all others throughout Slovenia. Because of this, the decree must be very, very precise about what counts as a kind of misdemeanor, negligence and that in such cases it is also sanctioned.
So this is the first part – misdemeanor, because you do not go properly equipped to the mountains and then you are yourself to blame for the accident that occurred. What about the second part?
The second part is insurance. Abroad, we have different types of insurance, but a simple transfer is of course not possible, because in Slovenia we have a very specific arrangement of emergency medical assistance, which very often intertwines with mountain rescue. We also have a doctor in the helicopter, especially in the summer time when we have duty crews, and they provide emergency medical assistance, which is free in the Republic of Slovenia.
Abroad, of course, this is not the case and insurance for providing emergency medical or helicopter emergency medical assistance is payable. However, there is a difference between foreigners and Slovenians and of course in such a case this does not apply in the same way for foreigners and they should have insurance, just as Slovenians do when we go abroad, if we want the helicopter to take us. In this case, of course, it is necessary to achieve that such reimbursement of certain rescue costs can also be claimed through insurance companies, which of course then bear that part of the relief.
If we are very practical then – a person who goes to the mountains, meaning where the risks are greater, will also have to have some insurance package with us, do we understand you correctly?
Not necessarily always. As I say, it is necessary to write very precisely in which cases of rescue this would be necessary. If we just go for a walk to Šmarna gora or to Pohorje or to Pokljuka to pick something, then in such a case we probably will not need insurance and in principle we do not need it abroad either. If we walk on paths that will be determined to require some special knowledge and an incident happens there and rescue is needed, in such a case insurance will be absolutely necessary.
It must be known that we also have quite a few service providers, such as canyoning, cave tours and similar things, which can result in demanding rescues by cave, mountain and similar rescuers and in such a case of course not everything will be free anymore, because here it is about responsibility and organization.
That means, for example, in a package if you go canyoning, the price will include insurance?
If we look at, for example, canyoning, where a group can spread out and guides cannot watch the entire group and someone can stop in the middle and then in such a case very demanding rescues may be needed – in such cases it is foreseen that insurance for such demanding rescues would also be possible, which will be additionally charged.
More and more people are heading to the mountains. How will this be accessible, how will people be informed that they must also insure themselves before visiting the mountains?
Nothing can be done from today to tomorrow. We would like to ensure that with the large number of mountain visits, abuses of the use of mountain rescuers and other rescuers are prevented, because they have to come to the scene of the accident, expose themselves, and then carry out the rescues themselves. Not least, their family members and employers suffer as well. A mountain rescuer can be absent for a longer time and thus unable to work. In such a case, of course, we would like that when someone goes on a simple tour, it is not payable, but when going on a more demanding one, we would like insurance for preventive reasons.
But this is not a matter of months, right?
No, first there will absolutely be a need for a transitional period with good informing of Slovenians and also foreigners and various providers. Some things can of course be done by next year and the tourist season, but the final implementation of the system would take a longer period.
Source:
https://www.rtvslo.si/okolje/resevanje-v-gorah-nikoli-ne-sme-biti-vprasanje-ali-bo-nekdo-poklical-na-112-ce-potrebuje-pomoc/725548