Those are questions presenter Randy Servis asked himself almost every day for more than 20 years, working in search and rescue. Today he is president of the National Association on Search and Rescue in the United States but he began as a volunteer in college and eventually became SAR coordinator for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona.

On average, the 100-person rescue squad, which includes many specialized volunteers, is called on more than twice a week.  On horseback, ATV, four-wheel drive vehicles, boats and snowmobiles; rapelling down mountains or climbing up cliffs, the SAR squad deliberately goes into harm’s way, but their supervisors have some tools and training to manage them safely.  

For Coconino County SAR leaders, intent on keeping their own people safe, risk assessment is more than some reviewing some scribbled notes from a human resources lecture. It begins with training. With limited time for drills and many high-risk activities among his responsibilities, Randy Servis needed a way to focus on the most important lessons. He found it in a presentation by a watch commander with the California Highway Patrol.  “Cops are really the worst at risk management,” Servis said, “and as a commander he was trying to talk about risk management for the squad level. He developed a four-part matrix that really hit home with me and it applies very much in law enforcement and search and rescue.”

High risk                                     Low risk
High frequency                         Low frequency     



High risk                                    Low risk
High frequency                        Low frequency
 

Training should concentrate on activities in the upper left quadrant because squads get little experience in them during the course of their duties. “They will be the ones that get us every time,” he said.  All the other activities are either performed often enough to be familiar to rescue teams, or sufficiently low risk to require less training. “It gives you some confidence that you have thought through your actions,” Servis explained.

For field work, he issued laminated cards to his search leaders for immediate risk assessment. Developed and refined from an Outward Bound presentation, the accident equation tool forces the leader into a realistic appraisal of the threats his people face.  Under categories like ”˜leadership’, ”˜environment’ and ”˜team cohesion’ the matrix is a checklist that allows people under pressure to recognize the consequences of their decisions.

“The accident equation classifies human and environmental dangers,” Servis said. The highest potential for an accident is at the intersection of human and environmental danger. “Hopefully this will force leaders to make some management decisions about risk.  Most of them will be on the human side because you can’t control the environment.”