Accident and Death

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Location
Boracay Island, Philippines
Just wondering, how are accidents reported or handled in different countries.

In my 6 years of diving in the Philippines, I have heard of...

A Korean girl doing her advanced course got separated on a drift dive and was later found dead. Her instructor, who turned out to be a Korean Instructor not in teaching status, fled the country.

An overweight and aging man did a deep dive and suffered from heart attack upon surfacing. Evidence of alcohol consumption was evident.

An instructor did a private dive with friends and did couple or so deep dives (reverse profile too) after staying late drinking alcohol.

A technical diver (could be advanced nitrox only) had nitrogen narcosis at 47m, swam to deep water and died.

Some instructors went diving on a day when the weather condition was really bad, at some point, they were separated and waves on the surface were approximately 2-3 meters. I think 2 or 3 of them died.

All of these accidents happened in various parts of the Philippines and in all cases, the people involved tried to keep things quiet. Of the cases I mentioned, it would seem to me that only 1 case was definitely not the fault of the diver while the others were diver's fault.

Lots of stories came out and most of them are entirely false.

In other areas, do the people keep things quiet? How are things done or handled?

 
The B.S.A.C. compiles statistics for diving accidents & fatalities as does D.A.N..

Here in Canada there are several provincial agencies keeping records.

When I started teaching scuba I spent considerable time surfing the net for such information...it is sobering reading. I found the information very useful in educating myself to the possibilities for trouble when humans go below.

D.S.D.
 
DAN puts out a report on Decompression Illness and Diving Fatalities periodically. The last booklet is the 2000 Edition, based on 1998 data. This is very valuable information and is well worth the cost of $25.
This can be obtained or ordered at http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/
 
:( Unfortunately in the US, if someone dies diving no matter how much the diver screws up, the manufacturer of the equipment he is using winds up in court. The death itself is typically carried on the local news and in some cases reported nationally. However, most of the time, you never hear about it.

What does make the news is SHARK ATTACKS.:grrr: No matter how big or small the attack is, its usually plastered all over the news, "SHARK ATTACK - MORE AT 10". Then you wait up all night to see a baby shark hanging on someone's finger!;-0
 
Take a look at http://www.cdc.gov, that's right, the Center for Disease Control in the U.S. At the top of the page click on Search and then search for "Diving". I haven't found the statistics for diving related fatalities, but there are quite a few interesting articles which document diving accidents. A good review to learn what NOT to do!

Dive Often, but dive safe :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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