Dave Kruger wrote: > I don't think anybody has any actuarial data to compare sea kayaking to other > sports, because accident/injury/fatality information is mostly anecdotal, and > there is no one (to my knowledge) "tracking" accidents, unlike the case for > North American mountaineering, which is summarized each year by the AAC. Even if actuarial data is available, it is interesting that it doesn't reflect in realistic appraisals of risk by the insurance companies. Ski jumping is safer than downhill skiing, yet if you read the small print on your insurance contract, it is likely to be void for ski jumping with nothing said for downhill skiing. I've stayed out of these discussions on risk up to now. I did research on risk and safety applied to load factors in engineering for a master's thesis (unfinished). One of the things that was frustrating to me was the complete lack of correlation between measured risk and perceived risk. What's the point of measuring risk if the response of the vast majority of people is to ignore the measurements and respond purely with emotion? (Eg. drive versus fly). Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Feb 27 2000 - 08:39:22 PST
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