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The Role of Risk Management

 

The basic reason Risk Management came into existence was to manage risks for their clientele. Their clientele are the pool owners and operators. The idea was to identify problem areas then present solutions to manage those risks and establish certain protocols and procedures to minimize those risks if a remedy could not be found. How does Risk Management do all of this? Facility incident reports give risk managers a clue where to look.

Initially they did exactly that. However they have now gone one step further. In an article, “Scared Stiff” published by Aquatics International Magazine, June 2007 there was a discussion of a man that goes up to the high board but then decides he can’t go off. His only alternative is to go back down the ladder. The problem for Risk Managers becomes, “What if he slips while descending?” Obviously he would fall to the concrete deck below and sustain an injury. This “What if” and the earlier “Potential for injury” scenarios create a scare mentality for pool owners and operators in this lawsuit crazy society.

The article rightly states that, “it is much safer to go off the water end of the diving board than it is to climb down the ladder”. The ladder systems currently in use were designed to climb up, not down. Some facilities want the lifeguards to escort the individual down. The idea of having a lifeguard do this is not a good one. If the original diver slips and falls, he/she may also cause the lifeguard to slip and fall to the concrete below. Now instead of one person injured, there may be two. A stairway design would be much safer for the user. Check the article on this site titled, “A Stairway to the High Board.” Pool patrons should be informed not to go up until they have convinced themselves to go off the water end of the board no matter how scared they might be.

The final paragraph of the article asks facility owners to evaluate the need for a high board. I believe that this is where they cross the line. In facilities, where there are no injury statistics to back the removal of a high board, why would one even suggest the need for its re-evaluation?

It appears this one person’s actions may cause the disappearance of the high board for all pool users. Risk Managers are trying to protect their clientele but just by making that suggestion, they infer that high boards are dangerous and that’s just not true. Risk Managers seem to be developing an actuarial mentality.

Competitive Diving (an Olympic Sport) is having a difficult time finding facilities to train future divers. Grass roots programs are helpless when it comes to finding diving boards at local pools. It seems that there still remains a misinterpretation of diving injury facts. All diving is lumped together with no distinction. Diving board injuries that are being recorded occur in residential and apartment complex pools not public or municipal pools, which have a larger and deeper diving envelope.

This misinterpretation continues when speakers at symposiums, clinics and the like offer their opinion that diving is unsafe. These are not experts in the field and their opinion is not backed by the current facts but rather by the misunderstanding of which type of diving is being discussed and where these injuries occur along with what type of pools they occur in. As long as these people offer off the cuff comments, the confusion regarding the safety of diving will continue to resurface from time to time.

Risk managers should be aware of this because their opinions and recommendations carry more weight and responsibility in the disappearance of diving boards. Before making any suggestions for diving board removal, Risk Managers should investigate thoroughly the current available injury statistics. Diving is safe as long as it is not done in shallow water. Shallow water has been defined as a depth of less than 5 to 6 feet. Springboards are not placed over that depth. However in the smaller pools (residential/apartment complex) a diver can propel himself/herself over the deep water into the shallow end. This appears to be where the misinterpretation of injuries from the use of diving boards begins.

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