1 in 300 trampers injured themselves last year

The data and one of the sub headings indicate a seven year historical data base, but further on in the article it is stated to be a ten year study already that throws doubt on much of what has been reported. However assuming that the information is generally correct the findings are not exactly unexpected. Walking the back country is completely different to walking the street as you constantly need to watch where you place your feet in the wild. Just look at the percentages of slips falls etc. We all know it, we have probably all had it happen at sometime, momentary lapse foot in the wrong place whoops! The worrying part is that Health and Safety is looking at tramping. I am just picturing some idealistic public servant proclaiming more signs need to be erected to warm people out and about of the dangers that they face. signs with large arrows pointing to exposed tree roots, warning of mud ahead, slippery surfaces, inclines, beware of wind and that just to avid the tramper in front of you. Do not linger you ma be attacked by an aggressive weta, do not eat the possums from traps, beware of falling trees. But wait, think of the benefits and the number of jobs that would be created. They would need at least 2000 people a year erecting signs and replacing damaged ones. A whole new economy would be created within the country. People growing trees specially designed to make signs, mills to mill the timber, designers, artists, painters. Oh! What a wonderful environment we will create. There are some instances where I think some people should stick to their knitting.

Worth a look - thanks for the link, geeves. Ever the sceptic, I wonder how was the figure of 1.5 million walkers in 2017 estimated? Does that pass the 'reasonable' test? on average 4,100 trampers across the Country per day throughout the year? And in the nitpicking category; Twisted ankle/knee 19% is listed as a Cause of Injury - surely it's the result of an injury, not a cause. It makes a pretty graph but Falls 17%, Slips 38%, Trips 13% - how do they separate these causes? Should just be Falls 68% One thing to note in the next discussion about SaR, costs and Tourists is that 70% of SaR operations involved a Kiwi. edit : you beat me by a few minutes, frankb, but we're on the same page 🤔

cant find where to download it?

That is such a low number of injuries, thought it would of been a lot higher. Guess not many people report them.

Stats from requiring Doctors visits. Therefore, as you surmised, undercounting of injury ?. Dilution of stats if you count the FaceTube herd as trampers. Then again, how many of the masses are exposed to ice/avalanche incidents ?. If someone does 2 or 25 trips in a summer, do they still count as 1 tramper ?. Multiple days on Te Araroa Trail = 1 tramper ?. Half a dozen partying Czechs looking for an easy overnighter vs a mid-winter multi-day alpining couple ?. The MSC report might have more detail.

@TararuaHunter, it hasn't been released yet. Stuff received an advance copy.

Did anyone notice the FMC Nov 2018 issue (p52-53) commenting on this MSC report? In line with our scepticism above, Danilo Hegg expresses considerable statistical reservation about the report and concludes with the quip "... there's no need to worry that '41% of injuries occur between 11am and 2pm'. Tramping at night to avoid injury is not a smart idea".

@FrankB - why woudl "health and safety be looking at tramping?" Approaches to health and safety need to be balanced with reasonably practicable steps that can be taken - there are plenty of good reasons for ensuring that people in the workplace are kept safe, and that an employer should be responsible for this. There is no way the Govt would seek to impose H&S controls on tramping, it simply wouldnt be possible, and theres no way that the Govt woud make DOC responsible for trampers on "its" land who have paid to be there - and would be seen as visitors to a "workplace." How many injuries per year do you see from people playing rugby? And yet this "great kiwi pastime" (etc etc etc etc) is able to continue as it always has (with what I see as a considerable annual cost to the taxpayer). To change this would offend most kiwis, as it would with tramping. That report alarmed the hell out of me and it has made me rethink how I do things, its made me aware that falls are a serious issue, especially for us older dudes going solo tramping!

If there's an inappropriate focus on H&S in tramping then I wonder if it's more a consequence of PLB culture and social media culture than with the Mountain Safety Council trying to find a new niche to justify its existence. Maybe the latter is a symptom of the former. These days when things go wrong, it's frequently resolved with expensive looking helicopters, followed by increasingly faceless and polarised arguments about how badly prepared someone was, and local news easily becomes national news. The internet and sharing doesn't have regional boundaries and it's really really easy for everyone to express a strong opinion even when they're not too clued up on what they're talking about.