A surge of insurance claims are costing Sunshine Coast surf life-saving clubs.
A third of the 32 claims lodged against Surf Life Saving Queensland (SLSQ) over the past five years have been over incidents at Sunshine Coast beaches and supporter clubs, including by people who were helped by lifeguards and lifesavers.
One case saw SLSQ incurring significant costs despite successfully defending a legal claim filed by a swimmer who named the SLSQ-paid lifeguards who helped him, gave him first aid, and sent him to an ambulance as respondents,
Sunshine Coast Daily reported.
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The swimmer was struck by a surfboard as he was swimming about 300m outside the flagged area at Noosa.
"Our lifeguard has ... provided all the care for him and then we get named as a respondent in a legal claim, not the backpacker who was the surfboard rider who doesn't have the money, but because we're an organisation with an insurance fund," said Craig Williams, SLSQ administration and compliance manager.
He also cited claims in and around supporters' clubs as an issue.
There is one case where a woman filed a claim for an injury she got for slipping on a liquid at the Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Supporters Club – a liquid she herself spilled, the report said.
Williams said the rising number of claims was costing clubs in rising insurance premiums.
"The issue for us is the personal injury procedures act, which is designed to make settlements quicker and easier, and therefore cheaper and therefore reduce insurance costs – that very legislation is what is costing us," Williams told the publication. "It's actually having the opposite effect to what it was designed to do. People can mount claims frivolously without any repercussion, without us having any recourse to recover costs."
Williams said the organisation is suffering from the cost of investigating and defending claims even when it was not found to be liable – money that could have been better spent on surf life-saving services and equipment,
Sunshine Coast Daily reported.
"There's certainly a level of frustration within clubs where they need to address issues where they're being held to account over a frivolous claim," he said. "Sometimes people have to take responsibility for their own behaviour and destiny and not try and make other people accountable for it."
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