Staff Writer
CARIBOU – In a small U.S. town, a 10-year-old girl sledding down a hill on municipal grounds lost her life when she crashed into a bush kept by the local horticultural society. A trimmed branch pierced through her eye to the back of her skull.
Staff photo/Meridith Paterson Doug Wyseman addresses participants of the Winter Risks workshop held in Caribou.
Doug Wyseman, of Municipal Risk Services in Ontario, makes a career of preventing such tragedies. Appropriately, he opened his winter risks workshop with this story, so participants would grasp the importance of foreseeing dangers.
On Tuesday, Nov. 6, 14 area managers and organizers of local schools and recreation facilities met in Caribou to learn about managing winter risks and the aftermath of any eventual accident.
“A major part of my advice is to protect people from dangers you know about,” said Wyseman. “If there is an unsafe toboggan hill, it shouldn’t take a tragedy to make people recognize danger.”
Wyseman began working in risk management when Canadian recreation organizations approached him after a couple of playground deaths. In Caribou, he dealt with facilities like indoor and outdoor rinks, trails and other public sport areas. Much of the morning and afternoon dealt with the fear of liability.
“A lot of people get in their own way,” explained Wyseman about liability. “This stuff isn’t rocket science.” For example, he noted an instance where a town might not put up a danger sign at a sharp drop off on a trail due to fears of liable. This will lead to an accident and legal action in the end, whereas the sign could have prevented a tragedy.
“We all have a lot of trepidation about liability,” noted Kathy Mazzuchelli, superintendent of Caribou Parks and Recreation. “He tried to refocus attention to managing the risks.”
Wyseman has a simple goal for each workshop. “My job is to come into communities and see how they manage risks and help them do it better. Here’s what I found, here’s what needs to be changed and here’s how to get where you need to be without spending money.”
Both Mazzuchelli and Wyseman believe that municipal officials, facility managers and community members need to work together. Everyone needs to share responsibility and remain diligent in bringing dangers to the attention of the correct authorities.
“There’s supposed to be risks with recreation,” recognized Wyseman. “People need to recognize this.”
“We have a generation that doesn’t accept responsibility for actions,” said Mazzuchelli. “What we need to do is expand and monitor facilities. Users should keep an eye out. Everyone needs to pick up on instances where there are issues or may be issues.”
In Wyseman’s experience much of the problem lies with what he calls ‘Idiots in Sports.’ Members of the public can cause harassment and abuse problems when worked up during a competitive game.
“Attitude is a lot of the problem,” said Wyseman. He described parents getting overheated during a hockey game or the reaction to facility staff calling off play due to ice conditions. “Every two weeks there’s a spinal injury from hockey due to bad coaching, hitting from behind and sometimes bad ice.”
He gave simple instructions to prevent these kinds of accidents: “Owners have to say ‘sorry the ice isn’t good enough’ and towns should adopt a zero tolerance policy for acting like an idiot.”
Multiuse trails can also cause problems when, for example, snowmobilers may want to use the same trail as the cross country skiers. The public needs to recognize signs, and respect the trail markings.
The facility managers left Tuesday’s workshop better prepared for the 2007-2008 winter season.
“It was great to be able to have a national speaker locally with is expertise and knowledge,” said Mazzuchelli.
Jacquie Cesare of Fort Fairfield Parks and Recreation attended with her upcoming ski program in mind. “I hope to bring back valuable information to my staff.” Their program has about 50 children, all of whom they want to guard against negligence.
Through addressing dangers and everyone taking responsibility for public recreation areas, facility managers hope to have an exciting and safe winter season.
