Study shows sharp drop in Swiss avalanche deaths

While almost 2,000 people have died in close to 1,000 avalanches in the Swiss Alps and Jura region since 1936, the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) said Tuesday that the number of avalanche-related fatalities has decreased significantly over the years.

"In controlled areas -- roads, railways, communities and secured ski runs -- the number of victims has declined substantially in recent decades," SLF reported in a statement.

"The 15-year annual average number of victims dropped from 15 at the end of the 1940s to less than 1 in 2010," it added.

This decrease is likely due to "huge investments in avalanche barriers as well as improved danger maps, effective closures and evacuations, and the artificial triggering of avalanches," SLF continued.

Findings also reveal that most fatal avalanches in controlled areas were triggered naturally and close to half the deaths documented on transportation routes and ski slopes were work-related.

In non-controlled zones, the institute said that nearly all open-terrain accidents involved people partaking in recreational sports such as backcountry touring or other off-piste activities.

"The 15-year annual average number of victims stood at fewer than 10 during some periods at the start of the 1950s, before rising sharply in the sixties and seventies, and reaching a dismal record of almost 27 in the 1980s," it reported.

"Although the number of recreational sports enthusiasts venturing away from controlled areas continued to rise, the number of people losing their lives declined in the nineties (annual average of 20 victims)," it added.

According to statistics, most of the avalanches in these cases were triggered by the victims themselves.

The stabilization of figures in recent decades is thought to be the result of increased prevention, better information, and the availability of avalanche emergency equipment including transceivers, shovels and probes. Endit