| Travel Forum Index » Backcountry » lame use of PLBs... |
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| Ben Crowell... |
 Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:55 pm |
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| Wayne... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:50 pm |
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"Ben Crowell" <crowell09 at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote in message
news:0061fc70$0$12996$c3e8da3 at (no spam) news.astraweb.com...
Quote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20091026/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_yuppie911
"Tired from a tough hike? Rescuers fear Yuppie 911"
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Wow...and I thought cellfones were a problem in the backcountry...... |
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| hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com... |
| Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:53 pm |
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On Oct 26, 4:50 pm, "Wayne" <mygarbage... at (no spam) verizon.net> wrote:
Quote: "Ben Crowell" <crowel... at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote in message
news:0061fc70$0$12996$c3e8da3 at (no spam) news.astraweb.com...>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20091026/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_y...
"Tired from a tough hike? Rescuers fear Yuppie 911"
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Wow...and I thought cellfones were a problem in the backcountry......
Sad but I guess we should have expected it. A lot of us were worried
when the MLU (Mount Hood Locator Unit) was introduced. We were afraid
people would use that as an excuse to take on things they would avoid
without it. Fortunately that wasn't the case, I suspect because to
get one you have to go to a rental shop and that shop is supposed to
instruct you that the thing doesn't call SAR and you should be careful
anyway. In fact for years it seemed that the people getting in
trouble and those using the MLU were completely different groups, we
had almost no call to search for people with an MLU.
The PLB seems to have a bigger problem. In fact the first rescue I
know of with one involved a guy back east somewhere who was rescued,
then went back to retrieve his gear and activated the thing again.
They fined him the second time. |
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| Ben Crowell... |
| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:09 pm |
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hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com wrote:
Quote: The PLB seems to have a bigger problem. In fact the first rescue I
know of with one involved a guy back east somewhere who was rescued,
then went back to retrieve his gear and activated the thing again.
They fined him the second time.
I was pondering whether to get a PLB for a planned solo long-distance
trip this summer. I've ended up deciding that not having one will
probably just influence me to be more careful. (They're also very
expensive.)
I think we see the same phenomenon with antilock brakes and airbags.
People just drive faster, so you don't get any improvement in safety
from having them. |
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| Stormin Mormon... |
| Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:32 am |
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I think that frivolous use of PLB is like pulling a false
alarm on a fire department box. Should be subject to fines
and imprisonment.
--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
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"Ben Crowell" <crowell09 at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote
in message
news:0061fc70$0$12996$c3e8da3 at (no spam) news.astraweb.com...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20091026/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_yuppie911
"Tired from a tough hike? Rescuers fear Yuppie 911" |
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| Stormin Mormon... |
| Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:33 am |
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You sound like the cautious kind of person who would use a
PLB responsibly.
--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..
"Ben Crowell" <crowell09 at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote
in message news:005a298a$0$8080$c3e8da3 at (no spam) news.astraweb.com...
I was pondering whether to get a PLB for a planned solo
long-distance
trip this summer. I've ended up deciding that not having one
will
probably just influence me to be more careful. (They're also
very
expensive.)
I think we see the same phenomenon with antilock brakes and
airbags.
People just drive faster, so you don't get any improvement
in safety
from having them. |
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| Back to top |
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| hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com... |
| Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:57 pm |
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Guest
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On Oct 28, 4:09 pm, Ben Crowell
<crowel... at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote:
Quote: hlill... at (no spam) juno.com wrote:
The PLB seems to have a bigger problem. In fact the first rescue I
know of with one involved a guy back east somewhere who was rescued,
then went back to retrieve his gear and activated the thing again.
They fined him the second time.
I was pondering whether to get a PLB for a planned solo long-distance
trip this summer. I've ended up deciding that not having one will
probably just influence me to be more careful. (They're also very
expensive.)
I think we see the same phenomenon with antilock brakes and airbags.
People just drive faster, so you don't get any improvement in safety
from having them.
The technical name for the phenomenon is "risk homeostasis." The
concept is somewhat controversial but the idea is that people have a
certain level of risk they are comfortable with. If external forces
lower their risk they tend to take other risky actions and bring
perceived risk back to their natural comfort level. In fact antilock
brakes were used in an experiment to demonstrate this. In Europe
(Munich?) half the taxis were equipped with ABS systems, half not.
Accident rates were the same in both groups. |
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| Ben Crowell... |
| Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 7:05 pm |
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Guest
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hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com wrote:
Quote: On Oct 28, 4:09 pm, Ben Crowell
crowel... at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote:
hlill... at (no spam) juno.com wrote:
The PLB seems to have a bigger problem. In fact the first rescue I
know of with one involved a guy back east somewhere who was rescued,
then went back to retrieve his gear and activated the thing again.
They fined him the second time.
I was pondering whether to get a PLB for a planned solo long-distance
trip this summer. I've ended up deciding that not having one will
probably just influence me to be more careful. (They're also very
expensive.)
I think we see the same phenomenon with antilock brakes and airbags.
People just drive faster, so you don't get any improvement in safety
from having them.
The technical name for the phenomenon is "risk homeostasis." The
concept is somewhat controversial but the idea is that people have a
certain level of risk they are comfortable with. If external forces
lower their risk they tend to take other risky actions and bring
perceived risk back to their natural comfort level. In fact antilock
brakes were used in an experiment to demonstrate this. In Europe
(Munich?) half the taxis were equipped with ABS systems, half not.
Accident rates were the same in both groups.
An interesting book on this topic is Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies,
and Why, by Laurence Gonzales. It's a book on the psychology
of why people end up getting killed. Typical case studies involve
snowmobiling, white-water kyaking, flying, and backcountry hiking.
One of the interesting insights I took away from the book was that
often increased experience leads to a higher risk of death. Once
your brain is convinced that it can do something as a matter of
habit, it tends to go ahead and do it again. So, e.g., you get people
who have kayaked down a certain river 100 times before, guided
other people, etc. -- and then when there's a huge storm and
the river is full of trees and houses, they go out and get killed
on the river, which they're convinced they know how to handle. |
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