Should we pay to be rescued?

At least once a year, usually around this time, NZ newspapers run a story about the costs of rescuing trampers and mountain climbers. The Timaru Herald was first off the blocks with the topic this holiday season with the headline: "Mt Cook search costs to remain public".

The item is well balanced and the reporters did a good job in getting all the information together. Probably the only thing missing was a comment from the Federated Mountain Clubs.

However it did prompt the usual set of responses from people who write like angry drunks.

If you scrolled on past them you would come to my contribution:

"So many cases of people injured or overdue from tramping or climbing in the back country achieve sensational treatment in the news media. If you forgot the huge numbers of New Zealanders that enjoy outdoor recreation, you might think it was a common occurrence.

People involved with search and rescue like the publicity too, as they enjoy the rare kudos from what they do and want to ensure politicians keep making funding available.

However this publicity does generate public concern.

I wonder how this would change if the same reporting was given to incidents of similar severity that occurred working around the home, or on the sports field.

ACC statistics I've seen list rugby, soccer, netball, motorsport and snowsports as the top five for recreation accident expense. And I do often read of DIY and urban based recreation tragedies in Coroner's reports, that never gained headlines at the time."

It would be nice if the Timaru Herald did publish it. HoweverI don't think Timaru is a very big town for mountain recreation even if it is the city closest to Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park, so I don't expect it to change a lot of minds there.