ARA Online Incident Reporting

 

The ARA’s online incident reporting system is now up and running and available for all our clubs and members to use. This new system will capture all types of incident including those, which are presently entered in the club’s Incident Log Book as ‘recordable’ (no injury or significant damage to equipment).

Logging all types of incident is of primary importance to your club in your local situation as well as at national level, so that trends can be analysed and where necessary guidance given. ‘Near incidents’, which many rowers have experienced, have important learning points and need reporting. Some examples are included below.

The online system allows anyone to report an incident, even anonymously, and is designed to make reporting easier, besides enabling a more accurate picture to be produced. The Club Water Safety Adviser, or other appointed person, will be informed automatically by email when an incident involving their club is reported and be able to access the log and information on all their club’s incidents at any time. Likewise, their Regional Water Safety Adviser will be informed and where needed will be able to offer advice or request further information.

The ARA will hold all records so that statistics can be published on a regular basis with guidance, based anonymously on actual incidents. This will highlight trends and help clubs develop their approach to safety issues.

The present system of posting paper reports to your Regional Water Safety Adviser with copies to the ARA will be accepted up to 31st December 2008.

From 1st January 2009, only online reports will be accepted.

Examples of incident types you need to report:

• Capsize or falling out of boat through; inexperience, contact with another rowing boat,
  contact with other object, equipment or boat failure
• Collision through; contact with static object, moving object, navigation issue, poor
  visibility or lighting
• Swamping through; through water, collision with other rowing boat, collision with other
  object, wash
• Health related; manual handling, respiratory, hypothermia, heat stress, water-borne disease
• Equipment failure; boat buoyancy, riggers, gates, seats/feet, steering equipment, bow
  ball, blades/sculls, safety/coaching/rescue launch, PFD’s, throw lines, racking
• Land training due to; weight training, circuit training, running, cycling, indoor rowing, slips/trips
• Behaviour; vandalism/violence
• Trailer towing: failure of equipment, driving issue, incorrect or improper stowage, falling
  from a height

Examples of ‘near incidents’ you need to report:

• sudden evasive action had to be taken to avoid a collision
• a boat is flouting navigation rules
• a boat is not displaying the required lights at night
• a crew has boated in high risk conditions
• a dangerous situation existed

It would be helpful if you could login before reporting an incident and then click on the Incident Reporting icon on the right hand side of the web page, this way we can contact you for further information if necessary.  If you prefer to make an anonymous report just click on the icon.