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A fine line between pleasure and pain: applying a systems analysis to the Kimberly ultramarathon fire
Conference paper   Open access   Peer reviewed

A fine line between pleasure and pain: applying a systems analysis to the Kimberly ultramarathon fire

Eryn L Grant, Natassia Goode and Paul M Salmon
Procedia Manufacturing, Vol.3, pp.1132-1139
Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) International Conference, 6th (Las Vegas, United States, 26-Jul-2015–30-Jul-2015)
Elsevier BV
2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.189
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Published VersionCC BY-NC-ND V4.0,  Open Access
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Abstract

Kimberly ultramarathon Accimap systems approach human factors
The Kimberly ultramarathon was a tragic incident in which a bushfire trapped and severely injured five athletes. Rasmussen's [1] risk management framework and accompanying Accimap method have been shown to be appropriate for understanding adverse events in a range of areas, including outdoor recreation [2, 3]. This paper presents an Accimap analysis of the Kimberly ultramarathon incident, which in turn is used to examine whether Rasmussen's framework is appropriate in the extreme sports event context. The analysis shows that features of the ultramarathon incident are consistent with Rasmussen's [1] model of accident causation in sociotechnical systems. The incident was caused by multiple, interacting factors across the wider sporting event system. Moreover, the characteristics of the incident were found to map onto the key tenets of accident causation described by Rasmussen. This article demonstrates that systems accident analysis methods are appropriate for examining extreme sporting event incidents. Specifically, the Accimap demonstrates the systems approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of the causal relationships between factors involved in the Kimberly ultramarathon fire. The implications for the design and delivery of extreme sports events are discussed.

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