Table 2.
Cause of emergency vs. injury classification on via ferratas in Austria from 1 November 2008 to 31 October 2018. Listed according to total frequency.
| Cause of Emergency | Uninjured n (%) |
Injured n (%) |
Dead n (%) |
Unknown n (%) |
Total n (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exhaustion | 525 (73.6) | 147 (20.7) | 1 (0.1) | 40 (5.6) | 713 (42.3) |
| Fall | 39 (10.2) | 220 (57.5) | 47 (12.2) | 77 (20.1) | 384 (22.8) |
| Blocked or lost person | 265 (90.1) | 21 (7.1) | 1 (0.3) | 7 (2.4) | 294 (17.5) |
| Bad weather | 95 (97.9) | 2 (2.1) | 0 | 0 | 97 (5.8) |
| Injury not caused by fall | 9 (13.0) | 36 (52.2) | 0 | 24 (34.8) | 69 (4.1) |
| Medical emergency | 19 (34.5) | 21 (38.3) | 7 (12.7) | 8 (14.5) | 55 (3.3) |
| Rockfall | 0 | 30 (81.1) | 0 | 7 (18.9) | 37 (2.2) |
| Lightning strike | 1 (5.6) | 7 (44.4) | 0 | 10 (55.6) | 18 (1.1) |
| Material failure | 0 | 2 (33.3) | 4 (66.7) | 0 | 6 (0.4) |
| Icefall | 0 | 1 (100) | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.1) |
| Unknown cause | 7 (70) | 1 (10) | 2 (20) | 0 | 10 (0.5) |
| Total | 960 (57.0) | 489 (29.0) | 62 (3.7) | 173 (10.3) | 1684 (100.0) |
Note: Unknown: Police officers were unable to obtain information.