The Scuba death rate...

[Dash]

I remember when I was in class, this past September, and our Instructor told us that diving was a fairly safe sport and that recreational diving deaths were few and far between.

Now this may be true from a statistical standpoint considering the total number of divers, but from reading the Accidents and Incidents forum, you'd never know it.

Just look at that forum, there must be 6-8 deaths on the first page alone. And while I havent gone and counted (maybe I should), it seems like hardly a month, hell, even two weeks, goes by that another death is reported. Of course, it is correctly pointed out that many deaths that occur while diving are not truly diving accidents, but simply the onset of an existing medical condition.

Even taking that into account, people are dieing at this sport on a much more consistant basis than I was led to believe.

Am I wrong on this? Am I missing something?

Dont misunderstand me, I am not shying away from diving. I ride motorcycles, race mountain bikes and do any number of risky things. In fact it just gets me more involved as I take on the responsibility of training myself completely to handle the things that kill others.

The best part of this website, by far, is the Accidents and Incidents forum. There is nothing here that makes me more involved, and gets me thinking more, than that forum.

 

[123Scuba.com]

Yes, diving accidents/incidents are extremely downplayed, hush-hushed etc. This forum is quite unique. Very little (good or bad) escapes the board.

 

[DoItRite]

You have to take in to account how many dives take place each and everyday. Take for example the Oriskany. I estimated that over 5,000 dives took place from May 17-Dec 31, 2006. Of those 5,000 dives, I only know of two dive related accidents. Both were fairly minor and the divers recovered well. (Rumors of deaths on the Oriskany are simply untrue). If you look at that as 1 in 2500 dives had an accident, on a wreck in the gulf, sitting in 212' of water, that's a pretty good rate. If you get 2500 people to drive across town, more than one will have an accident. Diving accidents do occur, but in comparison to the amount of dives being conducted, you are pretty safe. I have a shirt that says "Remember when sex was safe and diving was dangerous?".... look at STD rates and compare them to diving accidents. :crossbone

 

[DoItRite]

By the way, great Screen Name... just drank Jack with them over the weekend

 

[merxlin]

I remember when I was in class, this past September, and our Instructor told us that diving was a fairly safe sport and that recreational diving deaths were few and far between.

Now this may be true from a statistical standpoint considering the total number of divers, but from reading the Accidents and Incidents forum, you'd never know it.

Just look at that forum, there must be 6-8 deaths on the first page alone. And while I havent gone and counted (maybe I should), it seems like hardly a month, hell, even two weeks, goes by that another death is reported. Of course, it is correctly pointed out that many deaths that occur while diving are not truly diving accidents, but simply the onset of an existing medical condition.

Even taking that into account, people are dieing at this sport on a much more consistant basis than I was led to believe.

Am I wrong on this? Am I missing something?

Dont misunderstand me, I am not shying away from diving. I ride motorcycles, race mountain bikes and do any number of risky things. In fact it just gets me more involved as I take on the responsibility of training myself completely to handle the things that kill others.

The best part of this website, by far, is the Accidents and Incidents forum. There is nothing here that makes me more involved, and gets me thinking more, than that forum.

According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office (at a presentation to our dive club in November of 2006): The were an estimated 2 million active dives in 2005, and 200 reported Scuba deaths in the U.S. Of that 200, approximately 75 percent had a medical cause (either pre-existing or unknown at the time). Another 15% had a medical implication, i.e. was not the direct cause of death. This leave a small percentage due to equipment failure or plain diver error.

That said, there were 3 deaths in early October (opening week of lobster season) that were to divers on rebreathers.

So statistically, diving is "safe" as far as death rate goes, and could be much safer if divers would be in better physical condition. For example, one "diving death" was a woman that was 300 lbs+ and 5' 2" tall, and diabetic. She had a heart attack and died while diving. Is this a true "diving" accident?

 

[johnny_bravo]

My 0.02

1) There are prob somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 million divers in the world. A dozen casualties or so a year it's not much.

2) Most deaths are from individuals who have no business diving due to health concerns...many heart attacks on surface swims, etc.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[Divingdon]

One thing that isn't reported in the Accidents and Incidents forum is when the accidents are just down to sheer stupidity. I guess this is out of respect for the dead and not wanting to upset anyone. The newly qualified DM who decided to train for the world air depth record by going to 70 metres on his own, as his first deep training dive. The Tec Diver who went into a space far too small with all his kit on and wedged himself in tight. The list goes on of people who take risks with their own lives as they believe that they have the knowledge and ability to do these things, which they don't. But other people have done all this things and worse and survived. Darwin is at work here too.

 

[Dash]

I understand, as I mentioned in my post, that using statistics, diving can be said to be a safe sport.

I simply wasnt prepared, after training, to see an internet forum that consistantly reported deaths every other week to 1 month.

For example, I ride a motorcycle every day to work. I frequent a few motorcycle forums. I know how dangerous it can be, and that people die riding in significant numbers (4008 deaths in 2004 nationwide). Despite this, one can read motorcycle forums without ever being aware of this because there just isnt the same amount of reporting by the riders themselves, as there is within the diving community.

I think reporting these deaths is a good thing and I wish it happened more on the motorcycle forums.

It is still surprising and somewhat scary to see so often. For some, I think it will make them gun shy, for others, I think it will make them train and prepare better.

 

[Thalassamania]

You have to take in to account how many dives take place each and everyday. Take for example the Oriskany. I estimated that over 5,000 dives took place from May 17-Dec 31, 2006. Of those 5,000 dives, I only know of two dive related accidents. Both were fairly minor and the divers recovered well. (Rumors of deaths on the Oriskany are simply untrue). If you look at that as 1 in 2500 dives had an accident, on a wreck in the gulf, sitting in 212' of water, that's a pretty good rate. If you get 2500 people to drive across town, more than one will have an accident.

The fallacy in that argument is that folks who are diving Oriskany are not representative of the general diving public. If those numbers are true (and I have no reason to doubt them) they represent the level or risk of a rather select group of divers. In point of fact for 5,000 recreational dives I’d expect no more than one case of DCS (actually 1 in 10,000) is the number oft quoted for recreational DCS risk.

As far as comparative risk of fatality is concerned:

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. That’s more than 25 times the generous estimate of 2 million.

Play with the numbers a little more. There are on the order of 22 player hours per game with about 100 players at the field, so on average each player has a quarter hr. per game (more or less) and about 15 practice hours per week. So let’s round down and make football appear slightly more risky (on an hourly basis) and say that each player is exposed to the risks of football for about ten hours per week or 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 as football 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.

 

[H2Andy]

well ... statistically speaking, i am more at risk in my car than i am diving

that's the bottom line for me

if i drive everyday even though i am at such risk, then it makes no sense to me to stop diving

taking the 2 million active divers in 2005, and 200 reported Scuba deaths in the U.S. figures, that makes it a 1 in 10,000 scuba death rate (assuming those figures are correct)

fatalities per registered vehicles in the US are 185 in 10,000 (2003 figures)