Safety at Harvester 2011?

[ryeland of doom]

Might consider wearing the old safety specs though.

[The Cumbrian]

As somebody thinking of taking a junior team along as well as 1 or 2 others this is a bit of a concern and not really something to laugh about. True, what can the organisers do but I'd be interested to see what the risk assessment states given past experience. Realistically speaking has anti-social behaviour got worse in the last 18 years...I'd say yes.

[Slowtochide]

I personally am baffled by all this. What do you want the organisers to do? Apart from being aware of it there isn't much they can do. I

Well there certainly are things that the organisers could do. Given that one issue related to a woman being chased when crossing a road one step would be to have the road crossing manned. Another would be to have a couple of large males on standby with headlamps and official looking jackets to go out to an area if any issues are reported. I'm not saying that this is exactly what should be done or that anything is 100% proof against problems - just that there is a sensible position somewhere between a cast iron guarantee and just saying that nothing can be done. (and lets be clear the organisers have not said that)
Anyway, I now have direct contact with the organisers so shall carry on the conversation through that route and I am sure that they will update you all in the event details when the time comes

[lostlad]

Given that one issue related to a woman being chased when crossing a road one step would be to have the road crossing manned. Another would be to have a couple of large males on standby with headlamps and official looking jackets

I find this comment incredibly sexist. are you seriously saying that people would only want to chase women? I didn't think orienteers were the homophobic type. I obviously made a gross misjudgement.

[Adventure Racer]

Given that one issue related to a woman being chased when crossing a road one step would be to have the road crossing manned. Another would be to have a couple of large males on standby with headlamps and official looking jackets

I find this comment incredibly sexist. are you seriously saying that people would only want to chase women? I didn't think orienteers were the homophobic type. I obviously made a gross misjudgement.

Are you serious? Maybe you could point out where in that the sex of the person being chased is relevant to what they might do to alleviate the problem (hint, try replacing "woman" with your noun of choice and see if it reads any better), or do you think mentioning the gender of the person who actually did get chased last time is an issue and that less information should have been provided to satisfy the sensitivities of the easily offended? Nor am I sure what Gordon has to do with it.

[guest960504]

Well there certainly are things that the organisers could do. Given that one issue related to a woman being chased when crossing a road one step would be to have the road crossing manned. Another would be to have a couple of large males on standby with headlamps and official looking jackets to go out to an area if any issues are reported. I'm not saying that this is exactly what should be done or that anything is 100% proof against problems - just that there is a sensible position somewhere between a cast iron guarantee and just saying that nothing can be done.

I think there is an organisation run by the state that deals with this sort of thing. Not sure it is up to an event organiser provide this service. My solution would be phone with the digit 9 intact in the extremely unlikely event that this happens over a decade on.

[AndyC]

While I'm in agreement that the police have a resposibility to protect individuals , I know how stretched they can be (on a Saturday night) and how long they can take to respond.
The organiser/s therefore have to consider what harm could be caused in the time they take to arrive and that they might regard something that a competitor finds distressing as trivial in the context of other incidents in the area.
ShUOC making some provisions to prevent problems and to react quickly to any potential disruption is only sensible.
(One of which is certainly talking to the local police)

[guest960504]

(One of which is certainly talking to the local police)

What are the others?

[AndyC]

As I don't know the area and haven't faced the issue myself in Orienteering I couldn't try to make a proper list BUT you'd respond to the police advice, consider avoiding potential "problem areas" in planning and make arrangements to prevent people entering affected areas if incidents occurred after the event had started -wouldn't you?

[FATBB]

Is there really two pages of comments on this?

What could the organisers possibly do to reassure you of the area's safety? There must have been countless similar incidents on all sorts of areas over the last 20 years, why should one incident 18 years ago put you off going to an area which is locally described as:

one of the safest of all our areas in South Yorkshire.

If the area was considered as unsafe, surely the local orienteers would be the first to know and if that were the case, do you really think the Harvesters would have been organised there along with the countless other events, large and small, held there over the last 18 years.

Never have I heard a call for "a couple of large males on standby" it's absurd. Maybe all the teams should run it together and not race, so that everyone will have the reassurance of safety.

[DaveK]

I personally am baffled by all this. What do you want the organisers to do? Apart from being aware of it there isn't much they can do. It was over ten years ago. When does it become safe again? Would you orienteer on a map where the battle of hastings took place because I hear in 1066 there was a particularly rough battle there..

No one in their right minds would likely want to orienteer at Battle Great Woods, near Hastings. It could hardly be said to be one of Saxons best areas. From memory, you could sink in the heavy clay and perish there quite easily (a 'rough battle' it is)!

[soc123]

There is nothing an organiser can do to legislate for, or mitigate against all the vagaries of what the general public is capable of doing.
Whilst collecting controls in at dusk, at an evening event in one of our country parks, approaching one control in a clearing, I was faced with two youths using an air pistol to perforate the control flag. Luckily they were not too aggressive, just disappointed that I wished to remove the target!
We still use the country park on an annual basis.

[Mrs H]

This has been a remarkably unconstructive thread so far - so in an effort to do something about it i'll get the ball rolling with a couple of simple ideas which may be of use to the organisers.

Obviously inform the police - particularly over any areas of concern as they will almost certainly put some extra patrols in the area over night which will do a great deal to deter any ne'r do wells in the vicinity.

Make the carrying of whistles compulsory and how about a measure employed in the Western Night League this season after someone went massively overdue last year and sparked a bit of a panic - the carrying of a mobile phone with the organiser's number on speed dial.

Any more ideas?

[Dave]

they could have x-ray machines at all entrances to the woods to make sure noone (public or competitor) has any dodgy firearms, bombs etc.

[Lord Knoll]

they could have x-ray machines at all entrances to the woods to make sure noone (public or competitor) has any dodgy firearms, bombs etc.

Well that would certainly put paid to my plans to nobble the opposition.