Tragedies on trips may be hitting the newspaper headlines but schools should not be deterred from running them for fear of legal action should an accident occur, urges the Health and Safety Executive. Following a spate of fatalities, in July 2002 the Government issued more guidance for teachers supervising school trips. According to a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) spokesperson, this advice will "clarify" preexisting guidance "but it won't dramatically change what has been laid down since 1998". (The Guardian, 27.6.2002). Indeed, the 1998 guidance was published following the 1993 Lyme Regis canoeing disaster in which 4 teenagers drowned. (The Times, 4.7.2001). Hidden in the shadow of deaths and injuries are the near misses, which rarely come to light. One example of good luck against the odds involved a party of sixth-formers who got oft their coach one foggy afternoon in the Lake District during the late 1960s. They began walking along a slippery, muddy hillside track high above a steep drop which they couldn't see.
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