I don't think litigation is a factor here. I think it has more to do with actual safety and budget issues. Here's the NPS page about the rule, with lots of fun links:
http://www.nps.gov/grfa/planyourvisit/river-safety.htm
A couple of items of note: 27 people have died in the Great Falls to DC stretch since 2001. Three of them died last summer -- which is apparently what prompted the rule. Also note that the ban apparently extends only between Great Falls and DC; Steve may have some information to the contrary, but I didn't see a source for his article.
As for where this ties into budget priorities, here's a Time article from 5 years ago:
"The National Park Service spends nearly $5 million annually on search and rescue (SAR) missions and that doesn't include the cost of hundreds of thousands of man hours that go into these searches. Yet unless rescuees violated a park rule — like trespassing into a protected archeological site, for example — they aren't responsible for the cost."
So before this rule, anyone wading in the Potomac got rescued for free. Now, anyone wading has to pay for their rescues. Later in the article, it explains that helicopter flying time is around $1,600 an hour, so it adds up pretty quickly. It might be a lot more here, since they have to use special helis with quieter rotor noise.
Note that this rule does not apply to boaters, for a pretty good reason: the boating community puts a lot of effort into safety and making sure their people don't get hurt.
When I first moved to DC, I spent five years as a relatively active white-water boater. In addition to learning how to paddle, we had safety classes, and we pushed our boating buddies to take them. We also self-policed like crazy. If you were in a boat without a PFD, you got yelled at. If you were anywhere near whitewater without a helmet, you got yelled at. And if you got in trouble, the absolute last thing you wanted was to ask NPS for help (or, godforbid, the Cabin John Fire Department. (I am not saying the NPS or CJFD are unworthy organizations, just that our attitude as river gods who could link cartwheels in a playboat in Class IV whitewater was that any rescue involving a rubber raft was beneath our dignity.))
The result was that hardly any boaters ever needed rescuing, and those who did were newbies who weren't part of the community. In one memorable case, a couple of tourists rented a 2-person sit-on-top and put in above Great Falls. 'Darling, what's that horrible pounding whooshing noise?' They went down the MD side of the Falls, which is a solid Class V (=most dangerous runnable whitewater). I think they were wearing PFDs, but what really saved them was that it was the annual Potomac River Festival for the WW boaters, and nearly every boater in the area was at Great Falls park that day. (I rolled in late, just after the rescue.) In fact, just about every experienced boater has a story or two about saving somebody who got in trouble in the water -- thereby saving the Park Service a big chunk of change. So boaters get some respect from the NPS: in my time as a boater, I never saw or heard any stories about other boaters getting hassled by the Park Police.
All of which is to say that if wading the Potomac is important to us as a community (and I think it is), part of our response should be to start paying attention to safety. We have a great resource in the Potomac, but we should also respect it as a powerful river that has killed plenty of people.
One thing we can do, and I talked to Dan about this earlier this year, is that we can probably get one of the local whitewater clubs to adapt their safety curriculum for wading and fishing. It would cover things like wading technique, proper equipment, and what to do if you get swept away: how to swim in current, protect your noggin, self-rescue, etc. The cost would probably be modest. If there is interest from other members, I can start working on putting together a class for later this summer. We'd want to do it in lower water, and we would have to get wet. I'll start a new thread along those lines, since probably nobody is going to read this far.
Miles
On Friday, May 23, 2014 9:04:43 AM UTC-4, namfos wrote:
-- http://www.nps.gov/grfa/planyourvisit/river-safety.htm
A couple of items of note: 27 people have died in the Great Falls to DC stretch since 2001. Three of them died last summer -- which is apparently what prompted the rule. Also note that the ban apparently extends only between Great Falls and DC; Steve may have some information to the contrary, but I didn't see a source for his article.
As for where this ties into budget priorities, here's a Time article from 5 years ago:
"The National Park Service spends nearly $5 million annually on search and rescue (SAR) missions and that doesn't include the cost of hundreds of thousands of man hours that go into these searches. Yet unless rescuees violated a park rule — like trespassing into a protected archeological site, for example — they aren't responsible for the cost."
So before this rule, anyone wading in the Potomac got rescued for free. Now, anyone wading has to pay for their rescues. Later in the article, it explains that helicopter flying time is around $1,600 an hour, so it adds up pretty quickly. It might be a lot more here, since they have to use special helis with quieter rotor noise.
Note that this rule does not apply to boaters, for a pretty good reason: the boating community puts a lot of effort into safety and making sure their people don't get hurt.
When I first moved to DC, I spent five years as a relatively active white-water boater. In addition to learning how to paddle, we had safety classes, and we pushed our boating buddies to take them. We also self-policed like crazy. If you were in a boat without a PFD, you got yelled at. If you were anywhere near whitewater without a helmet, you got yelled at. And if you got in trouble, the absolute last thing you wanted was to ask NPS for help (or, godforbid, the Cabin John Fire Department. (I am not saying the NPS or CJFD are unworthy organizations, just that our attitude as river gods who could link cartwheels in a playboat in Class IV whitewater was that any rescue involving a rubber raft was beneath our dignity.))
The result was that hardly any boaters ever needed rescuing, and those who did were newbies who weren't part of the community. In one memorable case, a couple of tourists rented a 2-person sit-on-top and put in above Great Falls. 'Darling, what's that horrible pounding whooshing noise?' They went down the MD side of the Falls, which is a solid Class V (=most dangerous runnable whitewater). I think they were wearing PFDs, but what really saved them was that it was the annual Potomac River Festival for the WW boaters, and nearly every boater in the area was at Great Falls park that day. (I rolled in late, just after the rescue.) In fact, just about every experienced boater has a story or two about saving somebody who got in trouble in the water -- thereby saving the Park Service a big chunk of change. So boaters get some respect from the NPS: in my time as a boater, I never saw or heard any stories about other boaters getting hassled by the Park Police.
All of which is to say that if wading the Potomac is important to us as a community (and I think it is), part of our response should be to start paying attention to safety. We have a great resource in the Potomac, but we should also respect it as a powerful river that has killed plenty of people.
One thing we can do, and I talked to Dan about this earlier this year, is that we can probably get one of the local whitewater clubs to adapt their safety curriculum for wading and fishing. It would cover things like wading technique, proper equipment, and what to do if you get swept away: how to swim in current, protect your noggin, self-rescue, etc. The cost would probably be modest. If there is interest from other members, I can start working on putting together a class for later this summer. We'd want to do it in lower water, and we would have to get wet. I'll start a new thread along those lines, since probably nobody is going to read this far.
Miles
On Friday, May 23, 2014 9:04:43 AM UTC-4, namfos wrote:
I think part of the problem is that we have too many lawyers around - attorney members of TPFR excluded of course.Mark
http://www.tpfr.org
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