Before It Becomes a Tragedy: Why Risk Assessment Must Come Before the Activity

Engr. Elaine Macatangay Morales, MPA | 12 June 2026

Some activities feel safe because they are familiar.

A Chemistry laboratory experiment is part of learning. A PE class is part of wellness. Swimming lessons, intramurals, athletic training, retreats, field trips, and team-building activities are often seen as part of student formation, discipline, confidence, and teamwork. Because the purpose is good, the activity itself may be assumed to be safe enough. 

But from a safety management perspective, good purpose does not cancel hazard. A laboratory experiment can involve chemicals, heat, fumes, glassware, waste, or fire risk. A PE class can involve heat stress, falls, collisions, fatigue, or underlying health concerns. A sports training program can involve equipment, terrain, weather, intensity, and human limits. A water-based activity can involve drowning, panic, currents, depth, poor visibility, fatigue, delayed rescue, or changing environmental conditions.

The question should not be asked only after something goes wrong. It should be asked before the activity begins: What can harm people here?

When Activities Move Beyond Routine

Public reports have confirmed the death of two Ateneo de Manila University men’s basketball players, Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili, following a drowning incident during a team-building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora. The loss is heartbreaking. It is also important to be careful and respectful in discussing it. Details that are not publicly established should not be filled in with speculation. 

But tragedies like this can and should make organizations pause. Not to assign blame from afar. Not to pretend that every risk can be reduced to zero. But to ask whether organized activities, especially those involving high-consequence hazards, are being planned with enough discipline before people are exposed to danger.

This is where occupational safety and health (OSH) thinking becomes relevant, even outside the usual image of factories, construction sites, power plants, or industrial facilities. Schools and universities are also workplaces and activity systems. They have employees, students, athletes, visitors, contractors, coaches, laboratories, clinics, kitchens, vehicles, equipment, sports facilities, and off-site activities. The setting may be academic, but the hazards are real.

Risk Assessment Is Not Paperwork

Risk assessment is sometimes misunderstood as a form to be completed just for compliance. At its core, however, it is a disciplined way of thinking.

It asks: What are the hazards? Who may be exposed? How can harm occur? How likely is it? How serious could the consequence be? What controls already exist? Are they enough? What must be changed before the activity proceeds?

In HIRAC or Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Control, the process starts with identifying hazards, including those associated with routine and non-routine activities. The risk is then assessed based on criteria such as likelihood, consequence or severity, exposure, and existing control measures. From there, the organization decides whether the risk is acceptable, whether additional controls are needed, or whether the activity should not proceed until the risk is reduced.

This is not very different in principle from environmental management. In environmental aspect-impact assessment, we identify the activity, product, or service; determine how it interacts with the environment; evaluate possible impacts; consider normal, abnormal, and emergency conditions; identify significant aspects; establish controls; monitor; evaluate; and improve.

Whether the concern is worker safety, student safety, or environmental protection, the discipline is the same: identify early, assess honestly, control properly, and check whether the controls work.

Hazards in School Activities Are Still Hazards

Because schools are associated with learning, we sometimes soften the language around risk. We call things enrichment, exposure, immersion, training, bonding, or character-building. These may all be valid. But the label does not remove the hazard.

A swimming activity is still a water-exposure activity. A mountain hike is still an outdoor activity with terrain, weather, fatigue, and emergency-access issues. A Chemistry experiment is still an activity involving substances and reactions. An athletic team-building activity may still involve physical exertion, unfamiliar locations, group pressure, and changing conditions.

This is why risk assessment must happen at the planning stage, not as a post-incident reflection. By the time an incident occurs, the system is already reacting. The more important safety work should have happened earlier, when organizers still had the option to redesign, relocate, postpone, add controls, or stop the activity.

Not All Controls Are Equal

A common weakness in safety practice is relying too quickly on reminders. “Be careful.” “Listen to instructions.” “Sign the waiver.” “Wear this.” “Stay together.” These are not useless, but they are not always enough.

The hierarchy of controls reminds us that some controls are stronger than others. The most effective is elimination: remove the hazard if possible. If a water-based activity is not essential to the learning or team objective, can it be removed? If not, can it be substituted with a lower-risk activity that achieves the same purpose? Can it be moved to a controlled environment, such as a supervised pool instead of open water?

If exposure remains, then stronger controls are needed: proper site assessment, defined boundaries, qualified supervision, lifeguards or trained rescuers, rescue equipment, reliable communication, clear head counts, emergency transport, weather monitoring, participant briefing, and authority to stop the activity when conditions change.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) may also be necessary, such as flotation devices in water-based activities. But PPE should not be the only line of defense. In OSH, PPE is generally treated as the last line of defense.

Safety should not depend mainly on whether every person remembers every instruction at the most stressful moment. A waiver is not a control. A reminder is not a rescue plan. Good intentions are not emergency preparedness.

The Questions That Should Be Asked Early

For any on-site, off-site, or higher-risk activity, the organization should ask practical questions before approving participation.

What is the activity? What is the site? What hazards are present? Who assessed the area? What conditions could change? Who may be exposed? Are participants physically and mentally prepared? Are there health, skill, fatigue, or confidence issues? Is participation voluntary, or is there pressure to comply because everyone else is joining?

For water-related activities, the questions become even more specific. Is the water shallow or deep? Is there current, surf, uneven footing, poor visibility, or sudden drop-off? Are there trained lifeguards or rescuers? What is the supervision ratio? How will participants be monitored? What happens if someone goes missing? How fast can rescue and medical response happen? Who has the authority to stop the activity?

These are not signs of overthinking. These are basic safety questions.

The Lesson We Should Not Miss

The lesson from the Ateneo tragedy, and from similar incidents in schools, workplaces, and community activities, is not that organizations should stop holding meaningful activities. Learning, sports, training, and team-building matter. The lesson is that meaningful activities must be planned responsibly.

Risk assessment is not meant to block initiative. Done properly, it protects people so that activities can proceed with greater care, clarity, and accountability. It helps organizations see hazards before they become emergencies. It makes responsibility visible before it becomes a question asked in grief.

Systems fail not only because people make mistakes. They also fail when hazards are normalized or ignored, when assumptions replace assessment, when controls are weak, when roles are unclear, and when emergency response is imagined but not prepared.

Before every experiment, trip, training, game, or team-building activity, the system should pause and ask: What can go wrong? What are we doing about it? Who is responsible? Are the controls enough? What will we do if conditions change?

Because in safety management, the most important work often happens before the activity begins. And sometimes, the difference between a meaningful activity and a tragedy is whether someone asked the right risk questions early enough.