Most of our colleagues got into VRS in training missions. Despite what Vuichard claims, there are not thousands of lifes lost due to VRS.
Most Settling With Power accidents happen close to the ground to the "complete surprise" of the pilot. I think that the clues that you do not have the power to hover OGE are pretty clear (collective under the arm and still going forward) and most pilots get not into VRS because they do not have the power to hover but just because we sometime are just dump, fat and happy. Tailwind is another often used method. (See REGA accident)
What am I doing? I stop now, we had all this already.