How Dangerous is Scuba Diving?

[ScubaInChicago]

Diving becomes dangerous around the time you become complacent and start to let standard practices lack...This is true of many hobbies that can result in death; flying, skydiving, bungee jumping, ect....

 

[RJP]

Diving becomes dangerous around the time you become complacent and start to let standard practices lack...This is true of many hobbies that can result in death; flying, skydiving, bungee jumping, ect....

While I certainly agree, I'd suggest that you don't need to compare scuba diving to "high risk" activities to make the point. I mean, hell...

Crossing the street becomes quite dangerous - and can easily be fatal - if you become complacent about looking both ways before doing it.

 

[paddler3d]

Riding motorcycles is dangerous...people still ride them! In fact there are States where people have fought for he right to ride motorcycles w/o helmets!

With anything, you manage the risks and you learn to manage the risks with proper training and education.

 

[RJP]

Riding motorcycles is dangerous...people still ride them! In fact there are States where people have fought for he right to ride motorcycles w/o helmets!

I've always found this humorous....state's trying to pass a helmet law to protect heads that apparently are not all that in need of protection.

 

[paddler3d]

I've always found this humorous....state's trying to pass a helmet law to protect heads that apparently are not all that worth protecting.

I always it was just natural selection.

 

[InTheDrink]

I've always found this humorous....state's trying to pass a helmet law to protect heads that apparently are not all that worth protecting.

Problem is they don't always die. Can be costly.

J

 

[ScubaInChicago]

While I certainly agree, I'd suggest that you don't need to compare scuba diving to "high risk" activities to make the point. I mean, hell...

Crossing the street becomes quite dangerous - and can easily be fatal - if you become complacent about looking both ways before doing it.

Sorry, I was trying to relate it to hobbies.....

You are 100% correct.....crossing the street, driving, walking up/down the stairs, crossing R/R crossings (both driving and walking)...

These are all things that we take for granted and some draw the short stick at an inopportune moment. Others help tip the odds by texting while doing the above....

Darwin will find these people....

 

[Web Monkey]

Yes the data is out there. It will not be easy to get and it will require quite a bit of your time. The graphs will give you your answers but you are not going to get your answers without the research.

The data is impossible to get because it doesn't exist.

There is no way to know how many people do how many dives and there is no mandatory accident reporting and no central repository for accident reports. This makes the actual risk impossible to calculate.

Terry

 

[Thalassamania]

Compare diving to the things you have an "instinctive" feel for: football, baseball and auto racing.

FOOTBALL: There were three fatalities directly related to football during the 2005 football season. Two were associated with high school football and one with professional football. In 2005 there were 12 indirect fatalities. Eight were associated with high school football, two with college football, one youth league, and one professional football.

BASEBALL & SOFTBALL: Between 1973 and 1995, 88 baseball deaths were reported and of these deaths 68 were due to ball impact injuries.

AUTO RACING: From 1990 through July of 2002, at least 287 people died in U.S. auto racing, including 29 spectator deaths. Head and neck injuries killed at least half the drivers.

I have a major problem with the word "safe" as in "diving is a safe activity." Safe means, "without risk." We should not be trying to make diving "safe." We should be bending our efforts toward minimizing the risk.

Sounds like the same thing no? NO! It's a glass half full/half empty question. As long as we continue to use the "S" word we are deceiving folks and lulling them into a stupor. When we talk about minimizing or reducing risk, folks have an entirely different attitude.

For the approximately 1,800,000 football participants in 2005, the rate of direct fatalities was 0.17 per 100,000 participants. To reach that level of risk there would have to be more than 52 million active divers in the US.

Play with the numbers a little more. There are a little less than 22 player hours per game with about 100 player hours at the field, so each player averages .25 hours per game (more or less) and about 15 practice hours per week. So lets round down to make it more dangerous and say that each player is exposed to the risks of football for about ten hours per week and 100 hours per season. So for 180 million risk exposure hours there were three fatalities. Carrying this over to diving, to have the same level of risk there would have to have been over five billion diver hours spent underwater (or more than 20 hours underwater for every person in the United States), not likely.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[greylion]

Diving becomes dangerous around the time you become complacent and start to let standard practices lack...This is true of many hobbies that can result in death; flying, skydiving, bungee jumping, ect....

I agree. Many divers go long periods between dives and forget their training and lose their skills through inactivity. A lot of extra risk comes with that often repeated scenario with people who only want to dive in warm, clear water on vacation. I'm guilty of that myself but try to keep up as best as I can.

Then there's the guy who thinks he knows it all and just has a too cavalier attitude about everything he does, just as dangerous if you ask me.

"Dive Safe and Often" it will minimize your risk.