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Accident at Mt Buffalo 12-Jul-2015 At 3:29:29 PM kieranl

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While this was not strictly a climbing accident (more like canyoning than anything else) it's pertinent to climbers because of the location and some of the things it reinforces.
It hammers home the dangers of poor communication. Anyone who has done the raps to the base of Ozy knows how difficult the noise of the waterfall and creek can make things. Add in a large group of people, even experienced people, and a serious problem and the potential for confusion multiplies.
I'm still having trouble working out how the incident evolved as it did - I'm guessing that, like many of these situations, it was the end-result of a series of decisions which seemed reasonable at the time but cascaded into near-disaster.
What's of real concern to me is that this was only one of three climbing-related abseil accidents early this year, any of which could easily have resulted in a fatality. It's pure luck that no-one died, although two of the people involved were seriously injured.
In all three cases human factors contributed heavily to the accidents, these being variously poor communication, distraction and impatience. We're all guilty of these at different times and I know that it's only luck that has saved me from mistakes due to these over the years.