Review - Rescue 3 UK - Weir Assessment System
People oftern find it difficult to assess the danger posed by a man made weir, unless they are very experienced in Swiftwater Rescue. The Environmental agency in Great Britain needed to assess the danger that weirs on rivers posed to the public. Rescue 3 UK developed a weir assessment system to help them with this difficult task.
Download Weir Assessment System v3.1
The system is divided up into 4 sections:
- Weir hazard rating
- Likelihood of weir to cause harm rating
- Weir risk rating (1 x 2)
- Weir rescue rating
The Weir Hazard rating looks at 10 structural factors of the weir such as; the amount of towback, depth of hydraulic, height of the drop etc. Each factor is then rated with points from 0 to 5, and all the points added up for a total score.
Likelihood to cause harm tries to work out if anyone will be able to get stuck in the weir and looks at all the different ways that could happen. Again each factor gets a point score, which are added up for the overall rating.
The risk rating is produced by multiplying the hazard by the likelihood.
Lastly is the Rescue rating, it looks at 10 points that influence the ease of rescue such as; width of river, access on the banks, availble anchors etc.
All in all it is a very good system aimed at users who have very little experience of swiftwater rescue. Some people may find it's mathematical nature a bit overly complex, as it takes a while to add all the points up. Others may ask why is there a need for likelihood and risk ratings. Don't forget this system was developed mainly to prevent people from drowning in weirs and not just for rescue requirements.
Also available in German.
info@swiftwaterrescue.at