Accident Data Reporting

A number of UIAA member federations have established systems to collect data about accidents. Their approaches vary, from gathering of individuals stories for publication, through data collection by online reporting forms to general statistics compiled by the rescue services. Some efforts are community-driven, some organised by climbing federations, and some by public services. Altogether a substantial amount of data is being collected and often put to good use for the benefit of climbing safety, but there is no uniform way of doing it. The UIAA has brought together data and knowledge from the national systems that exist, and created an international database.

The UIAA Project

This initial version of the database compiles information about existing, national systems and processes for accident and incident reporting relating to climbing and mountaineering. This work serves two purposes. One is to learn about the capabilities of the existing systems, what data they are able to provide, how the data is being used to support climbing safety, their success factors as well as the barriers and obstacles faced in collecting the data. Based on this information the Working Group will proceed to develop recommendations on best practices in accident reporting, and ideally also standards to facilitate data exchange and data comparison between systems.

The Databases

The repository of worldwide accident and near miss reporting systems are detailed below.

The map version offers information about the systems themselves as well as contact details. The list from below provides direct links to the systems.