Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 at 20:02
Shaker
The idea of an emergency is different to everyone. Factors that can come into play, are your fitness level, your age, your sex, your mental alertness, your understanding of the local environment at the place of your 'emergency'. Also what other emergency equipment you have. Mobile phones, HF radios, UHF radios & Sat phones can all assist in some emergency situations. It is always good to carry other forms of communication so that you can try to get assistance locally.
When all these avenues are exhausted because they do not work or you do not have them, then you must make a decision whether to sit & wait for help to pass you by, or push the button the emergency button.
Breaking down in the high country could mean just waiting for someone to pass & assist you, but how long do you wait? There is no right answer. Everyone reacts differently when put under pressure with a
breakdown or vehicle accident. At the end of the day, it is your decision as to whether you push the button. For sure, there will be people say that 'I could have sorted that problem out' but the were not there and assessing the situation.
I recall a 4WD trip we did about 5 years ago in the High Country. We were running a difficult trip so were on tracks that saw very few vehicles. As we rounded a bend, we saw a vehicle using a block & tackle to try to recover his Hilux up a 500 metre steep incline. After talking to the guy (Tim) & his new girl friend (she said she wasnt going 4WDing ever again), Tim told us that he took the wrong turn and came down the night before. Realising how difficult the track was, he tried to turn around at the bottom, but rolled his vehicle. He manged to upright, then slept in his vehicle overnight, then spent about 8 hours trying to recover his vehicle up the steep incline. Tim managed to move his vehicle about 100 metres up the
hill in 8 hours (with breaks). This was a
hill that required diff locks, which all our convoy had.
Being the first vehicles he had seen in 24 hours, Tim was greatly relieved when we offered to winch him off the track so we could pass then snatch him to the top of the
hill. Of course, he had no emergency equipment, but if he had an epirb, I believe he would have used it, especially as no other vehicle travelled on the track the previous day or this day.
Was this an emergency? It is a personal decision, and the Australian government covers the cost for all 'genuine' emergency recoveries. How they define genuine is a little vague. However, iwe should note that this is not the case in other countries. I suppose this is why SPOT users will notice that they can purchase insurance to cover all emergency recoveries in other countries.
Laurie
AnswerID:
462352
Follow Up By: The Landy - Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 at 21:54
Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 at 21:54
Hi Laurie
I think the authorities define what isn’t a genuine call-out as ‘malicious intent’. That is the device was simply activated for the sake of it. And it isn’t because of the cost involved; in fact cost never seems to come into the rescue equation. Malicious activations could actually see emergency
services deployed at a time when there is a ‘genuine’ emergency and therefore wasting scarce resources, that is the bigger concern, not the cost of deployment.
In terms of using other methods of communication, it may or may not be appropriate, but a read of my earlier post highlights the potential downside of using a mobile phone for example – you may need to convince someone there is an emergency, this will never happen with a PLB.
Studies have shown that people in ‘emergency’ situations usually recognise fairly early they are in a situation that is deteriorating and that outside intervention is required, but often simply delay that intervention, frequently with dire consequences.
And this is one reason why authorities are never likely to charge for a rescue, even if it might appear unwarranted to others, as long as the person being rescued believed they were in some sort of danger. The argument against charging for rescues is that you’ll end up with people dying with an inactivated PLB in their possession because they didn’t won’t to risk being charged the financial cost of a rescue...
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