RMs Should Balance Concern and Law

By Caroline McDonald

NU Online News Service, July 25, 11:56 a.m. EST?Risk managers setting up programs to counter the perils in parks, playgrounds and recreation areas should sometimes follow their conscience and ignore cold-hearted legal advice, an expert advised at an industry forum yesterday.

Doug Wyseman, risk management coordinator for St. Paul, Canada, in a telephone seminar yesterday for the Public Risk Management Association in Arlington, Va., advised that while liability risks and financial risks are "the main reason most of are here," the chief area of concern is injuries to children.

"Fortunately," he said, "We can eliminate the financial burden" and injuries to children simultaneously.

Mr. Wyseman recommended that risk managers of park and recreation departments in some instances avoid strictly adhering to legal advice. An example he cited is the issue of whether to post signs on trails notifying bike riders of a steep drop-off ahead.

Risk managers who want to post signs, he said, are often discouraged by city attorneys citing immunity in some states from any losses that may happen on natural lands. The legal advice is not to post a sign because once it is posted immunity is lost, he said.

"So what your legal department is saying is that it is far better to let the child go around the curve, not knowing there is a cliff ahead," he said. "And as he's going over the cliff, somebody in an office downtown can be saying 'thank God we didn't put up a sign because we have immunity from any claim that comes out of this.'"

People, he said, need to remember the big picture and proceed in that direction.

Every year in North America, he said, more than 6,000 people are killed in recreational pursuits and 200,000 receive hospital treatment from playground injuries.

He continued that 57 percent of losses are avoidable?31 percent are from poor maintenance, 12 percent result from equipment design, and 9 percent from equipment installation. Of municipal losses 10-15 percent come out of park and recreation departments, he noted.

Another point he made is that lawsuits are often filed out of anger. A little kindness and understanding, he said, can go a long way towards avoiding lawsuits.

An example he gave was a woman who tripped on a crack in a sidewalk as she was leaving a municipal building and fell, breaking her glasses.

But when she went back inside and told an employee that the sidewalks were bad and she should be compensated for her broken glasses, the employee wasn't concerned.

"She was told to "watch where she walks and go home'," Mr. Wyseman said. Instead the woman went to a lawyer. Two years later, he said, her picture was on the front page of a local paper. She was holding a new pair of glasses and a check for $150,000. "She said that all she ever wanted was for the city to fix the sidewalk and replace her glasses," he said.

One of the toughest jobs parks departments have is "dealing with the risk management department whose job it is to protect the organization," Mr. Wyseman said. In the eyes of the park and recreation departments, however, "the way they protect the organization is by saying 'you can't do that.'"

Mr. Wyseman recommended finding a balance between allowing acceptable risks and eliminating unacceptable risks.

Risk managers should ask, "What is the worst thing that could happen in your department and what is in place to stop it?" Mr. Wyseman said. Risk managers should find out how many losses they have, and why.

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RMs Should Balance Concern and Law

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