Stupid Tourist Rescued....

if you stagger out of a pub and get collected by a passing car, ending you in hospital and several hundred thousand dollars worth of "expenses" should you get the bill?

I think this is why we live in a country with the freedom to debate these topics and goodness to do what is right for life.

Yeah sure it is "wrong" that someone makes bad choices and humanity pays the price but please let me off the boat if we lose the heart to just do the bloody right thing and throw everything at saving a human life.


Steve

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Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

Bushie...no emergency services are free.

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No they are not free - but the end user doesn't usually cop any fee for the service. Obviously it varies state to state, but if your house catches fire the fire brigades don't send you a bill (at least not in NSW). Some cost recovery may be attempted for hazmat.
The last one I was associated with was $2m+ don't know how successful that recovery was though.

In NSW FRNSW can charge for hazmat and false alarms (if it is the second within 60 days).

Martyn

Another way to view this... False alarms and stupid people are a necessary part of Emergency/Rescue training. Nothing like the 'real thing' to sort out the cobwebs, better than simulated situations can ever do.
Or elite military such as SAS, etc... Wars are bad... - and brilliant training for them.

Volunteering for such units is also accepting the grubby thankless work as well as the Glorious Deeds... (Malaya campaign compared to Iranian Embassy rescue...)

Another way to do it. Random invoices...

New Zealand Transport Agency Bills Crash Victim... | Stuff.co.nz

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Originally Posted by roverrescue

if you stagger out of a pub and get collected by a passing car, ending you in hospital and several hundred thousand dollars worth of "expenses" should you get the bill?

I think this is why we live in a country with the freedom to debate these topics and goodness to do what is right for life.

Yeah sure it is "wrong" that someone makes bad choices and humanity pays the price but please let me off the boat if we lose the heart to just do the bloody right thing and throw everything at saving a human life.


Steve

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Interesting one there Steve, I remember a similar case years ago now where that did happen and the victim (through his lawyers of course) sued the publican for allowing him to get intoxicated and actually won. That is why they will now not serve any more alcohol to anyone who "appears" to be affected. Another win for the legal eagles. Too often we see people who make bad decisions blame someone else and through litigation get payouts for their own mistakes.
In this case I agree that the young fellow did a silly thing and thankfully the outcome was good and he will have learnt something from it. As said the publicity will possibly help educate some others as to the dangers our beautiful but harsh environment has to offer to anyone who does not understand this and does the wrong thing. I commend him for donating any proceeds of his story to rescue services.
As said above, I also feel that the employers of these young people with little or no understanding of our country should be held responsible unless they can prove they have a training process in place to educate anyone in their employ of the dangers and possible fatal consequences of any mistakes made in the bush. Absolute minimum requirements should be education in bush survival/first aid and training in radio procedures and all inexperienced workers should be accompanied by an older experienced person. All vehicles should be fitted with 2 way radios, dual battery setups, gps transponders,first aid kits, and carry spare water some tinned food and even an epirb plus a system where they log on/off in a register at the station with details of where they are going by what route and ETA etc, and someone at the station should monitor this. Pretty sure this comes under an employers duty of care these days. Risk assessment/jsa/slam/take 5 etc. covers this in places where most of us work and we have to be able to demonstrate and produce proof that we have done this and identified, eliminated or reduced the risks to acceptable levels so that we can do the job safely. Unfortunately there still seems to be a few professions around that don't do this and seem to get away with it. We have lost too many young people under these circumstances over the years and I feel that it is high time that a training course was made mandatory for new inexperienced recruits on stations etc.

I donate a $1000.00 a year to the RFDS and touch wood - Haven't needed them :)

And honestly - I hope I never do...

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Originally Posted by Bearman

As said above, I also feel that the employers of these young people with little or no understanding of our country should be held responsible unless they can prove they have a training process in place to educate anyone in their employ of the dangers and possible fatal consequences of any mistakes made in the bush. Absolute minimum requirements should be education in bush survival/first aid and training in radio procedures and all inexperienced workers should be accompanied by an older experienced person. All vehicles should be fitted with 2 way radios, dual battery setups, gps transponders,first aid kits, and carry spare water some tinned food and even an epirb plus a system where they log on/off in a register at the station with details of where they are going by what route and ETA etc, and someone at the station should monitor this. Pretty sure this comes under an employers duty of care these days. Risk assessment/jsa/slam/take 5 etc. covers this in places where most of us work and we have to be able to demonstrate and produce proof that we have done this and identified, eliminated or reduced the risks to acceptable levels so that we can do the job safely. Unfortunately there still seems to be a few professions around that don't do this and seem to get away with it. We have lost too many young people under these circumstances over the years and I feel that it is high time that a training course was made mandatory for new inexperienced recruits on stations etc.

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Try running those requirements by any owner or manager of a remote area station. He would either laugh or be startled. Just how many staff do you think are on these places? Who is going to perform these duties? The days of stations luxuriously staffed with gardeners, cowboy, cooks, maids, storekeeper, book-keeper, jackeroos, ringers, bore and windmill man, mechanic, and so on are decades gone. As an example, Kynuna and Dagworth stations are run as one entity with eight staff based on Kynuna. Most properties around the Winton and Longreach districts are family properties and mostly there are no staff other than the family.

The boy was lost in flat scrub country with no landmarks. Experienced bushmen get lost in this.

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Try running those requirements by any owner or manager of a remote area station. He would either laugh or be startled. Just how many staff do you think are on these places? Who is going to perform these duties? The days of stations luxuriously staffed with gardeners, cowboy, cooks, maids, storekeeper, book-keeper, jackeroos, ringers, bore and windmill man, mechanic, and so on are decades gone. As an example, Kynuna and Dagworth stations are run as one entity with eight staff based on Kynuna. Most properties around the Winton and Longreach districts are family properties and mostly there are no staff other than the family.

The boy was lost in flat scrub country with no landmarks. Experienced bushmen get lost in this.

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So safety's all to hard is it?

So you have a young inexperienced overseas worker working in a unpridictable and harsh enviornment where even experienced people get into trouble.

Yet you say safety is all to hard?

I'm curious as to how many people who are advocating that the guy should pay for every cent spent in the operation, stupid bloody tourist, etc, have actually worked in the rescue services??

I spent almost a decade with Mountain Rescue before I left Europe, and I can guarantee you that the last thing on any rescuer's mind heading out on a search and rescue operation is "dumb bastard deserves it", or "I hope he has the money to cough up for all this afterwards"> The goal is simple - find the casualty, get him and your team back in one piece. No other agendas. Sure, I've seen what can only be considered as downright stupidity, and there have been plenty of times in the pub afterwards where we have thought "what the hell were they thinking???", but even then the story is told anecdotally, or is used to figure out the events leading up to said situation so that steps can be taken to not let it happen again. The people that do the bitching and the whinging are usually the ones who are sitting on their asses looking out at us.

Welcome to the first world - and the benefits of living in a first world country is that it comes with certain entitlements, healthcare, education, and emergency services, to be absorbed by everyone, for the greater good. People get hurt, people get lost, sometimes through ill preparedness, sometimes through bad luck. For all you know it could be you or one of yours next time...