Our Great Outdoors: 5 deaths, 500 rescues, 4000 tramping injuries every year

Friday, 22 June 2018

A new report crunches the data on tramping incidents, hoping the insights will guide work to make the pursuit safer.

More than one in every 300 trampers in New Zealand was injured while walking in the outdoors past year, new research has found.

The Mountain Safety Council (MSC) spent about 15 months on the extensive report, called A Walk In The Park? It was supplied exclusively to Stuff before its release in early July.

Groups working to make tramping safer will be able to specifically target their efforts based on the report's findings.

The report found more 1.5 million people tramped in New Zealand in 2017, about 900,000 of which were New Zealanders. There were 5504 tramping injuries reported in that time, meaning that for every 279 trampers, one needed medical care.

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There was an 83 per cent increase in injuries over the past 10 years, but participation also increased over that time. About 40 per cent of injuries happened between 11am and 2pm.

Nearly 70 per cent of injuries were the result of a fall (including slips and trips). The most common type of injury was soft tissue damage, making up 80 per cent of all injuries. The knee or ankle was the most likely part of the body to be injured.

In 2017, one out of every 220,000 trampers died, with falling causing 31 of the 57 recorded tramping fatalities in the decade to June 2017. Nearly half of fatalities occurred while someone was tramping alone or had separated from their group.

Nearly half of international visitor fatalities were on short walks or day trips. compared to 22 per cent of New Zealander fatalities.

One of every 3019 trampers was involved in a search and rescue operation, with nearly 70 per cent of those involved being New Zealanders. Search and rescue incidents involving human error rose throughout the day, peaking about 5pm.

MSC chief executive Mike Daisley said nothing about the report was trying to make outdoor recreation look unsafe, and most people who went into the outdoors had a great time and returned safely.

The report goes into significant detail, including breaking down issues by various factors including age group, gender, and whether those involved were from New Zealand or overseas. It also looks at trends within several geographic hotspots.

Daisley said the level of detail in the report would allow experts to work on very specific problems, rather than trying to solve general tramping issues. He expected working groups would be established to focus on specific topics.

The report encouraged the sector to work with the facts, and removed ambiguity, emotions and opinions around the issues, he said.

It would help MSC specifically target the types of people most likely to be involved with tramping incidents to ensure they have the right information.

'It's not just a scatter-gun approach, it can get very targeted.'

Daisley said the report came from existing data that had always been considered too hard to collate and interpret. MSC staff went through tens of thousands of records to pull it together.

The data covers a 10-year period and came from a range of sources, including ACC, police, Rescue Coordination Centre, coroner's office, Sport NZ, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Tramping was defined as any walking activity in the outdoors where the participant had intended to be out for more than three hours.

Data was grouped into four man categories: participation, injuries, search and rescues and fatalities.

A Walk In The Park? is the third data analysis by MSC. It previously produced a general overview of the outdoor incidents and a deep dive into hunting incidents.