The bureaucratic-regulatory-managerial state
26 02 12 - 05:23
Just like union workers:
This was Walpole Park in Gosport, Hampshire, on an overcast lunchtime last March when no fewer than 25 members of the emergency services, including a press officer, descended on a 3½ft-deep model boating lake minutes after Simon Burgess, 41, fell into the water when he suffered a seizure. But as an inquest heard last week, he lay floating face-down for more than half an hour while firemen, police and paramedics watched and did nothing.
The reason? Even though they could all swim, the first fire crew to arrive hadnât been âtrainedâ to enter water higher than ankle-deep. Instead they waited for âspecialistsâ to arrive to retrieve his body. They had decided Mr Burgess must surely be dead because he had been in the water for ten minutes. When a policeman decided to go in anyway, he was ordered not to. A paramedic was also told not to enter the water because he didnât have the right âprotectiveâ clothing and might be in breach of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992.
The tragic incident made headlines around the world, held up as a shocking example of ludicrously risk-averse Britain. And it prompted a coroner to demand that fire, police and ambulance services improve training to prevent a repeat.
Following the inquest, a Mail on Sunday investigation has now discovered that:
- The âankle-deepâ rule was meant for fast-flowing water and is taken from guidelines drawn up to deal with floods.
- Other rescue agencies believe people can survive submerged for much longer than ten minutes â some will still try resuscitation at 90 minutes.
- The incident happened despite a previous reassurance from the Health and Safety Executive that firefighters would not face prosecution if they performed acts of heroism that break rules.
- Mr Burgess could have been reached within two minutes of emergency crews arriving at the scene â as proved by our reporter who went into the lake and waded 25ft to the spot where his body had been floating. - The Daily Fail
Rules soon become little cages because they are specific and miss out on the larger picture.
The whole point of having intelligence is to see the larger picture.
Further, socialistic collective subsidies make people determined to do what is required, and nothing more -- which means the minimum and no risk-taking.
In our zeal for control, we have replaced thinkers with robotic fools and are congratulating ourselves on having picked "the best."
This isn't meritocracy; it's an empire based on convenience and control.
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gw2 gold (URL) - 26-01-’13 03:00