Injuries and Incident Reporting FAQ
When to initiate Critical Incident Response reporting process
Race Director is informed by respective personnel that a life-threatening incident or fatality incident has occurred. In the event of a fatality, confirmation of a fatality needs to be obtained from a physician, licensed paramedic or EMS professional onsite or medical facility before confirmation of fatality can be released or communicated.
Notifications and Documentation 24 hours of confirmed incident
- Notify USAT Official onsite/ if USAT Certified Official is not onsite notify USA Triathlon directly
- Primary USAT Contact: Brad Hildebrandt | 402-578-7039 | brad.hildebrandt@usatriathlon.org
- Secondary USAT Contact: Aubrey Brick | 719-955-2827 | aubrey.brick@usatriathlon.org
- Membership Hotline | 719-725-2209
- Submit USA Triathlon Incident Report to Brad Hildebrandt (brad.hildebrandt@usatriathlon.org)
- Media and Communication
- Communication Best Practices document will be delivered upon incident notification
- If additional communication assistance is needed:
- Request USAT communication assistance from USAT primary or secondary contact
- Contact information for USA Triathlon Communication Manager provided
- If additional communication assistance is needed:
Documentation and Information submitted within 2 weeks post confirmed incident date
** Communication of items shift to Aubrey Brick
- Witness statements- written or recorded either will be accepted and filed
- Lifeguards, volunteers, staff, etc. Anyone that was a firsthand witness
- Police Report
- EMS information/report (HIPPA might restrict information from this source but provide what you can)
- Pictures or videos you might have obtained from incident (these will remain confidential)
- Any local or regional news media coverage that can be sent, print or video
Incident Reporting
You should have incident reports on hand either digitally or hard copy (or both) and easily accessible for your medical team to fill out. An incident report MUST be filled out for every athlete that comes into medical, regardless of how minor the injury may be.
Any athlete that crashes or gets injured on course in any way should be required to go to medical to get checked out and have an incident report completed. You can let the athlete know that this is in their best interest as we need an incident report for the athlete to use the USAT Participant Accident coverage they have access to by being a member and competing at a sanctioned event.
When filling out the incident report, collect as much information as possible so that USAT is well equipped to defend you, the race director, now and in the future should any claims arise. This means filling out as much athlete contact information as you can collect and then having your medical team be very detailed when they fill out the description of the injury and the cause of the accident.
Some medical staff may be apprehensive of sharing the personal information on the incident report due HIPAA laws, but as they are a hired contractor at your event and are working for you, they are allowed to share that information with you. Additionally, the athlete was participating at your event and signed your waiver so you have a right to that information in order to protect yourself and USAT.
Serious Injuries or Athlete Death
We hope you never need to use this procedure, but the unfortunate reality is athletes do end up in the hospital on a regular basis due to circumstances out of anyone’s control. We want you to know that we are here for you in the event of a serious injury or athlete death at your event, should one of these situations arise.
Please take the following steps in order:
- Contact Certified Race Official (CRO), if one was requested for your event
If there is no CRO, call USAT directly.
Brad Hildebrandt – brad.hildebrandt@usatriathlon.org 719.955.2821
Aubrey Brick - aubrey.brick@usatriathlon.org 719.955.2827
- CRO contacts Commissioner of Officials, Mark Turner - Mark.Turner@usatriathlon.org 719.955.2833
2a. While CRO is contacting Commissioner and USAT, inform the athlete’s emergency contact of the situation, if you haven’t already, and encourage them to head to the hospital.
2b. Begin collecting witness statements from police, first responders, lifeguards, etc., anyone that was involved with the incident. These can be written or recorded in the interest of time.
2c. Have an incident report filled out as soon as reasonably possible with as much information as you can gather.
- Mark Turner contacts USAT staff, Brad Hildebrandt or Aubrey Brick, and informs them of the situation.
- USAT will connect with the race director to gather more information and provide assistance with creating a statement for public release.
4a. Wait to release a statement until you speak with USAT as we have a communications team that can help to craft a proper statement that speaks to the incident and maintains appropriate athlete privacy.
4b. If you are unable to get ahold of USAT and are being pressured by media to release a statement, review the Crisis Communication Best Practices guide on the Race Director Toolbox.
After the Event
After the event is over, the best way to show support to the athlete and/or their family is to reach out to them and let them know you are there if they need any support or have any questions. They may or may not take you up on this but making the gesture is the most important part and can help to make any future interactions go much more smoothly.
If there is an athlete death, USAT will reach out to the emergency contact person and inform them of the Accidental Death Insurance Policy that is available to the family. To be sensitive to the situation, we usually wait a few days after the event before letting them know of the policy.
Finally, we recommend that you continue to gather any witness statements, collect the police report number (most police reports take a few weeks to be released) and submit the incident report to USAT as quickly as possible.
Who does the insurance policy cover?
The USA Triathlon policy automatically covers USA Triathlon athletes, Race Directors, employees, officials, volunteers, and sponsors while participating in sanctioned events. These groups and individuals are considered Class 1 insured and are named on the USAT insurance policy.
CLASS 1: Named Insured (no extra cost) - individuals already named on the policy (see above) who need proof of their coverage:
- Race Director
- Race Organizing Committee/Company/Club
- Sponsors
- Volunteers
Any other group that falls outside the above categories is considered a class 2 insured.
CLASS 2: Additional Insured ($10 each):
- Property Owner
- Facility
- Government Entity (excludes police and medical personnel)
- Venue
- Others as Required by Contract
*Please note - Additional insured should be added sparingly and only if required by contract. Not all individuals/groups may qualify for additional insured status and issuance of an insurance certificate does not guarantee coverage for the party requesting coverage.
Each Class 2 additional insured requested will be an additional $10 on top of your sanctioning fee. Any insurance certificates requested the week of the event will be charged $25 per certificate. We cannot guarantee that requests made within 72 hours or less before your event will be processed in time.
What is a certificate of insurance?
A certificate provides the certificate holder proof of insurance only and evidences policy number(s), type(s) of coverage, limit(s), and deductible(s). A certificate of insurance may be issued to anyone wanting proof of event insurance.
When will I receive my certificate(s)?
Insurance certificate request are processed each Monday and Thursday. Certificate request are put into the queue as soon as they’ve been paid for. For example, if you request an insurance certificate on Tuesday, that request will automatically go into the queue. However, the request will not be processed until Thursday. Once processed, you should receive your certificate(s) within 2-3 business days via email. The certificates will come from Integro Entertainment & Sport.