Incidents and near-misses in mountain sports. The first lessons and suggestions for prevention
Résumé
On October 31 2016, after a trial and preliminary launch period of 11 months, the SERAC database1 comprised of 184 reports. This is a lot, considering the recent nature of the tool and the performance of other experience sharing systems (Alpine near-miss survey and Alpinesicherheit, cited in the preface, each contain fewer than 100 reports after three 3 years’ existence). The database is therefore large enough to enable us to draw up an initial exploratory inventory of the trends revealed in terms of accident and incident types for each activity, the seriousness of these events and the profiles of the people affected; we can also see some of the most common accident-creating mechanisms. These first lessons may recall situations experienced by us all, which means that the resulting recommendations are more likely to affect the way in which we approach and deal with hazardous situations. However, these descriptions and interpretations must be addressed with a certain degree of caution: the analyses proposed depend largely on the content of the reports registered and the level of detail provided. They cannot be considered representative of all incidents and accidents occurring during mountain sports. It is therefore important to avoid excessive generalisation on the basis of our sample, which remains limited, and the filter constituted by the particular profile of the members of the Camptocamp community. However, these analyses reveal certain trends that could be consolidated as the number of reports submitted gradually increases.