Trimiris Injury

[James Crouchet]

> In Trimaris, a
> fencer took a blade that had been banned from use onto the practice
> field.

He was new and evidently did not know he could not just take out the kink and 
take the blade back on the field.

>  The marshal on the field didn't know this and didn't check the
> equipment.

The marshal DID know the blade was downchecked because the fighter told him. 
The marshal could not SEE a problem, so he passed the blade.

>  The blade broke and penetrated the other fencer's jacket and
> pectoral muscle.  Both fencers and the marshal on the field got
> suspensions.

Oh? And what did they suspend the injured fighter for? His equipment was all 
legal, inspected, etc.

I have heard nothing of suspensions and if there are such, I would expect it
to fall on the marshal and maybe the novice fighter.

>  It took a triple failure (blade, jacket, marshal) to cause
> an injury about as bad as those seen monthly at armored practices.

The jacket passed a thorough punch test not two weeks earlier. If it "failed" 
it was only in as much as cloth fails when poked by a sharp enough point.

We have a good safety record with very few injuries in the 17+ years we have 
been doing this. But there is risk in everything. I have lost some very good 
friends who did nothing more dangerous than get in a car to go to an event and 
no one has even considered the idea that we should stop using cars.

No one has died yet on any SCA combat field, but it will happen. Eventually, 
after enough years, the odds will catch us and we will lose someone. Maybe it 
will be me. I am not going to let that stop me from enjoying my life -- however 
much I get.

What bothers me is we seem to be in some sick race to see which field will see 
the first SCA combat death. Will it be Heavy? Light? Archery? When it does 
happen there will undoubtedly be a great hue and cry to ban that activity from 
the SCA in spite of our already amazing safety record. So everyone hopes it 
won't happen in THEIR favorite activity first.

I think if we can acknowledge that:
What we do is not 100% safe.
Fighters must accept some risk to go on the field.
We must continue to take reasonable steps to be safe.
Even if we lost someone tomorrow, we still have a great safety record.
Bad things will happen to good people and we can't fix that.
AND
Some things in life are worth a little risk.

Then we will be ok.

Don Savein - Ansteorra