The Director General of Emergencies of the Canary Islands Government, Fernando Figuereo, announced this Wednesday that the new Civil Protection and Emergencies law, which is already being worked on, foresees "a sanction model for rescues caused by recklessness".As he has pointed out at a press conference, at this moment there are "several problems with the identification of the rescued persons", since those who assist them "are not civil servants, but labor personnel of the company that provides the service" and, therefore, "they cannot open the file to identify the rescued person"."We understand that the reckless person has to pay for it. It is not about sanctioning the person who has suffered a fall, but a recklessness," such as a water accident when the red flag is in effect or accessing an area closed to swimming, he/she has stated.He recalled that in the last month there has been an incident in Los Charcones, in Yaiza (Lanzarote), and another on the coast of Santiago del Teide, in "a pool marked and signaled" due to a closure for coastal phenomena alert
"That is recklessness" and the cost of the rescue "is high" because "it depends on many factors", he asserted.
According to the amounts from 2012, one hour of helicopter amounts to 2,000 euros, he gave as an example.
"We want the Canary Islands Police, which is being implemented on all islands, to be a participant so that they register the rescued person if negligence is proven," he saidFiguereo has reported that at present work is also being done with Tourism to reach foreigners, since the majority of these incidents "are from people from outside," a "flaw that occurs in several communities"The director of 112 Canarias, Moisés Sánchez, has underlined that in those cataloged as "complex emergencies" there is "an overexertion from the point of view of the response"
There are "multiple accidents, with several affected and even missing," which means "activating a search operation that can even last a week" and that "has a price," because "the emergency is not free."
