[at-l] Rescue

[Tim Hewitt <thewitt@fairchildsemi.com>]

Hard not to weigh in on this one.

I worked with Search and Rescue for six years in Washington State. During this
time, I recovered bodies from mountains, lakes, rivers, avalanches and
mudslides, found hikers and hunters who were not lost (just missing according to
their families), brought in idiots who ventured into the Cascades and Olympics
without the proper gear or preparation, and yes, rescued lost hikers, hunters,
skiers, campers and even boaters, who really needed it, and who were really grateful.

At one point, I was even "rescued" myself - though it was not necessary and the
crew that "found" me were both angry and embarrassed when they discovered that I
had filed a hiking plan with the only open Ranger Station at the start of my
hike, and although I had not communicated my change of plans to my parents (I
was no longer living at home), I was not three days overdue as they reported, I
was right on schedule, and right where my hiking plan said I would be - which
was actually not the norm for me :).

Search and rescue costs were billed to roughly 20 percent of the parties we
rescued. This is standard practice in Washington and Oregon, and as I've
recently learned, it's standard practice in Maine as well. Any time a skier is
pulled from an avalanche when skiing in a closed area, a citation is also issued
for reckless endangerment. Seem stiff? Well maybe. I've pulled too many bodies
out from the backside of a mountain to believe that nearly any attempt to defer
this dangerous, indeed reckless behavior, is too harsh. 

I was pulled into one avalanche myself on a rescue mission and nearly died. I
was only saved because I had a personal beacon on and my crew were able to dig
me out in under an hour. Most avalanche victims die in less time than that. I
was very lucky. We recovered three bodies that day.  All had gone over the
backside of the mountain to a closed area and were caught in a huge avalanche.
Two of their families sued the ski resort for their loss - even though the areas
was clearly posted as closed and these skiers had to go under a safetly rope to
get to the back side of the mountain.

According to folks here in Maine who work closely with the New Hampshire search
and rescue folks, the law in New Hampshire was written to help with the
collection of money from people who are billed and don't pay. Billing people for
rescue has always been an option, the courts have recently been non-supportive
of the practice when the people who were billed contested the charges - stating
that they were already taxpayers and as such were already paying the bill. I
suppose I should say that the legal fees have risen too high for pursuit of
people who don't pay their charges - thanks to what I feel is a very poor legal
system, where someone can hire a lawyer with the sole intent of tying up the
courts and management area directors until they get fed up and throw the case
out of court.

Maine has three laws on the books that support billing parties as a result of a
search and rescue effort. One of these even allows for billing the people who
call in a rescue on your behalf if you didn't need rescuing in the first place.
It's these laws that prevent us from being dragged down the legal sewer that
exists in New Hampshire. I can only applaud New Hampshire for finally making it
official that these fines are legal and must be paid when assessed. It's not
going to change the way the fines are assessed - only how quickly they are paid.

Having said that, it is not on the minds of the people who risk their lives each
and every time they go into the mountains or out to sea to try to save a life.
They don't care who pays the bill, and are more often than not paying their own
personal expenses in gear, travel and time away from work to participate in a
rescue. 

As a rescue diver in Washington State, I needed to keep up a special
certification that required an annual renewal of $150, and attendance in a 5 day
course. I paid this out of my own pocket for 5 years - including burning up a
weeks vacation - for the privilege of pulling a rotting corpse out from under a
log jam in a river after it had been there for a week. Seeing the relief on the
faces of the families when they had the body back, when they knew what had
actually happened, was worth it for me.  Tough job, but someone has to do it. My
understanding is that due to liability concerns, private divers can no longer be
rescue divers - all are state employees now.

Again the lawyers are driving costs up, and keeping people from volunteering.
When people volunteer, more people seem to care. When the state runs it all
because they have been forced to do so because of liability, more people think
the "service" is something they are due, and less people seem to care.

By the way (gee this is getting long), I lost two friends in the six years I was
working search and rescue. One to a deep water recovery diving accident, and the
other to a climbing fall during training. Tough to take. Why I finally quit when
I got married.

Boy, I've depressed myself pretty well now. I think I'll go out and hike. Maybe
I'll get lost for a couple of days...

Paddler
GA>ME Class of 99
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