What has happened to commonsense and personal responsibility?

goldengirl, the situation I remember something similar to the one you outline was when someone (a lady?) was trapped down a hole and, although the fire service were in attendance, they were not 'allowed' to intervene. I believe H&S was the reason given. I further believe that young lady died. My detail is sketchy but I do remember having strong feelings about what should have happened at the time. I totally accept that theory and practice are two different things and all my 'facts' were obtained via the media.

SNH spend a lot of money promoting the Scottish Countryside Code and by god, the number of people who appear to be in blissful ignorance of it.

Anyone stupid enough to have a dog running off lead next to cliffs in lambing season is bloody lucky to get the dog back at all. And frankly the dog should not be off lead in that situation.

Apricity, I know the ads of which you speak and now the tune is stuck in my head!

The RNLI did an excellent set about the dangers of British waters in recent years which I hope get another airing this summer. Most folks have no idea how cold British coastal waters really are, and cold water shock kills most drowners who die in fairly shallow waters.

Agree with Kim19, common sense is not common (nowadays?)

Yes I agree. I would never let my dog run freely in such a dangerous place .
It would be exactly the same with my children and grandchildren.
Not the place to run free at all

A good idea, in principle, Fennel, but a) the idiots wouldn't watch it and b) even if they did, it wouldn't occur to them to apply the instructions to themselves.
Morecambe Bay is one of the most dangerous areas in Britain, with tides that sweep in at amazing speed, filling up gullies behind walkers and cutting them off. There are also very scary patches of sinking sands. Numerous warning signs are posted, yet every year people have to be rescued, (if they are lucky enough to be spotted)
We just have to accept that there are people in this world who think that nothing bad will ever happen to them, no matter what they do. Unfortunately we are too humane to leave them to get on with it, so rescuers put their own lives in danger.

A sign may be appropriate if there are significant unseen hazards-always assuming people see the sign-but this incident was on the top of a socking great granite cliff! You can’t really miss it can you?

“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits”

Albert Einstein

Sadly, sign of the times - it's somebody else's responsibility to keep us safe! We might as well remove our self-preservation gene.

Common sense has gone out of the window. People are scared to react in case it brings a law suit. Either that or it's someone else's fault!!
I can't remember the full story but wasn't someone in difficulties in a lake / pond some while back and an official of some sort wouldn't go in to help because of some silly rules?

To promote safe train travel for Melbourne Metro trains McCanns advertising came up with a song and YouTube clip called "Dumb Ways to Die" that went viral worldwide and could be the anthem for this thread.

Vickya, I have just whatsapped him your question, his answer ‘ It’s all good practice when it’s not a tragedy’

Baggs .
But there are notices and when I observe those who still allow their innocent pets off leads the song of the Tin Man {my version} comes to mind
' If they only had a brain'.

Morning all! this thread always makes me think of my lovely Mum when we saw some act of idiocy. She would say 'Aye, common sense is not so common' Remember it well. I do wish there was some sort of legislation whereby offenders were charged for services supplied according to their means but. on the other hand, this may curtail some sense of adventure. I think in terms of climbers etc. and not any acts of sheer and obvious irresponsibility. Don't even know if the act of pursuance would cost more than it would collect. Mmmmmm.

Peardrop, I've heard that the lifeboat crews look on animal rescues as a practise opportunity. Would your son agree?

Many of these people seem to be after nomination for the Darwin Awards. Submissions for 2018 awards now open.

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Once again, wonderful pearls of wisdom from gransnetters. My son is an Anglesey lifeboatman, I am very proud of him but also fear for his life at times when he has to go to the rescue of an unthinking idiot in a kayak in rough conditions or a ‘tombstoner’ Who thins it’s fun to jump from cliffs in to unknown swirling waters, don’t get me started on dog owners who didn’t think for a minute precious pooch would leap off a cliff to chase a bird.
I don’t remember having lessons in common sense. As children we played hard, took risks, learnt from our mistakes and only blamed ourselves when things went wrong.
We have to ask ourselves are we responsible, as society in general for a molly coddled generation who need signs to state the obvious and cannot take responsibility for their own mistakes. I’m sure our children are exceptions as we gransnetters have been responsible parents but gosh there are lots of idiots out there.

I think in places with notably MORE dangerous and unpredictable tides than normal there should be signs, but if there are warning signs everywhere then people would assume that everywhere is like the safe bathing beaches where the tide comes in slowly and there are no sudden drops or fast undertows - and just ignore them.

katek
Agree .I live on the SW Atlantic coast and it will never cease to amaze me of the stupidity and ignorance of the human race. There have been fatalities and severe injuries , in the silly ?/summer season, concerning young men who had fallen off the cliff edge There was an issue, not unexpected from grieving relatives, that these areas of natural beauty should be ??fenced ??. I have also witnessed parents of young children allowing them inflated lilo's 'outside the red flag areas' where there will be dangers of being swept out to sea. There was a fatality several years ago of an eleven year old falling through an entrance into a disused mine.What harm was it doing , hardly part of the high way,given the fact the child would have had to climb a minimum of twenty mtrs up a cliff face to get to this entrance. There were notices at the base of the cliffs warning of concealed entrances plain enough to be seen.Should we have to seal and fence off everything of our heritage because there are those plainly lacking in common sense.

Seven people were killed at Camber Sands over a short period of time. If providing a notice and a lifeguard prevents a similar tragedy, then I think it's worth it. After all, there are lifeguards on other beaches.

It's the litigious society we gained from the America of 40 yrs ago. Everyone is scared of being sued (that's why schools shut for snow now when they would not have done so previously). Next generation then expect everything to be labelled as dangerous.

Sorry repeating myself there.

We were warned about dangers so often when I was young. We were too scared to do anything. No, we did fished in ponds climbed trees etc. Although our parents would have blamed us if anything went wrong. Not others.

I once got a call from a Newspaper asking if I knew anything about an incident in my area, where a girl had been balancing on a large drain in a fenced off building site. I didn't, but the following day there were headlines in the paper showing how the girl had fallen into the hole, she was rewarded by the paper with chocolate and sweets by the paper!!!

Couldn't agree more with other Grans. Here in Oz there are usually a number of deaths EVERY year in various scenic spots because people (mostly young) have actually climbed over safety fences, ignored clear warning signs etc to take a "selfie" on unstable or steep cliff faces or decided that swimming in a well signed crocodile, jellyfish etc area would somehow be "fun"! Every year visitors are drowned, especially in our southern oceans, because visitors do not understand our powerful undertows and ignore lifesaving warnings and signs.

Honestly, just how stupid, vain, whatever (words fail me), do you have to be to do this? I feel for their grieving families but just wonder if common sense and respect for the power of nature was somehow missing in their upbringing.

Australia is a beautiful place to visit and live in and I have travelled in every State and Territory and as far north and south and east and west of this vast country as can be done but please respect local knowledge and understand that signs are put there for VERY good reasons. This, if course, applies everywhere.

The more that protection like signs and fences are put in place, the more we start to assume we will always be protected by signs and fences. I am afraid it's a natural psychological process.

There are cliffs close to where i live,on the East coast, and i cant believe the stupidity of people letting their dogs run free near them ,several dogs have gone over, some have died as a result
My dog is always on a lead [except on the beach],even in woods. as we also have some very thick wooded areas, and dogs have got lost never to be seen again, one poor dog was found by accident weeks later dead

I completely agree with the heading of this post. What has happened to common sense these days and personal responsibilty?
Maybe it's because there are so many petty fears promoted and so much over protection with all the fashionable semi protective clothing etc and meaningless safety platitudes that people sometimes don't see the bigger picture. They often fail to apply simple common sense to the possible risks of a new situation which might involve survival and would certainly have consequences if things went wrong.