Categorizing & classifying accidents and incidents - database?

[Dack]

Because I am aware of my own mortality I feel the need to regularly read this forum and learn from others experiences. Failure is the best teacher...but I'd much rather read about it than take these lessons myself.

I was wondering if anyone has put together any sort of comprehensive analysis of scuba accidents with the intent of trying to identify key factors that are common between different types of accidents. Does such a database already exist? Or is there interest in creating one?

My mind wants to make risk associations, but those aren't always backed up by data. For example, one could casually say "probability of fatality increases with depth". But is that true within recreational limits?

I was thinking of doing a methodical walk through the posts on this board and collecting up the data. But beforehand I wanted to come up with the right metrics.

I recognize this will be incomplete at best, with missing data and only a small sample of overall accidents and incidents. But it could be quite interesting...


- Fatal / non-fatal
- Had air / out of air
- Physical injury / illness (DCI etc)
- Depth of accident: Surface / 10m / 20m / etc
- Within NDL limits / not
- Within recreational depth limits / not
- Experience level (how to quantify? # dives, training level, years diving?)
- Oxygen / nitrox / other mix
- Open water / cavern+cave / wreck
- Good health / preexisting condition
- Water temperature
- Fresh / salt water
- Boat entry / shore entry
- Current / no current
- Swell / no swell
- Equipment failure / none
- Animal attack / none
- Final medical diagnosis: Drowning / etc etc etc

 

[fjpatrum]

I'd say start searching DAN for information like that. I suspect they have at least some of the categorizations you've mentioned.

 

[TSandM]

Gareth Lock, a UK diver who I believe is occasionally here as GLOC, has started a data collection site for this purpose: Diving Incident and Safety Resource Centre. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it -- he is a very bright man, and very dedicated to this.

 

[GLOC]

Thanks Lynne for the reference :blush:

Lynne is right, I have been putting something together on this side of the pond, starting with Technical and RB incidents as they are a smaller subset and in many cases the devil is in the detail. This is progressing slowly, the database has been constructed, I now need to get the web-based GUI sorted for reporting (by divers reporting incidents, and analysts examining the data). One of the problems is that data is just not captured in enough detail, and if it is, then it is not available to the public.

In the mean time I could recommend a report I published last week on my other website - Cognitas Incident Research and Management Human Factors in Sport Diving Incidents Paper - which provides a means to classify incidents and uses a technique created for aviation incident analysis.

Another paper to look at is by Petar Denoble at DAN http://www.uhms.org/portals/0/uhm/vol35/35_6/2142denoble12-11pdf.pdf which classified the most common causes of fatalities in scuba diving and is very comprehensive. But as I point out in my paper, there is plenty of information on 'what' happened, but not much on the 'why' that incident occurred. That is what I am aiming to work towards but it will take time. I am employed full-time in the RAF and this is a 'hobby' albeit very important and time consuming hobby.

The proceedings of the 2010 DAN Fatalities Conference are due to be released fairly soon and there is a lot of information in that. The presentations (slides and video) can be found via the DAN site or this page on the DISRC

Regards

Gareth

 

[Kevrumbo]

Some stats from the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber Volunteer Crew Training Class:

Initial Reported or Observed Problem of Divers Brought to the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber (1995 - 2000):

Buoyancy Problem: 12%
Air Supply Problem: 11%
Buddy Problems: 10%
Decompression Problem: 6%
Equalizing Problem: 6%
Pain: 6%
Uncomfortable: 5%
Environmental Problem: 4%
Equipment Problem: 3%
Medical Problem: 3%
Regulator Problem: 3%
Rapid Ascent: 2%
Fatigue: 2%
Rebreather Problem: 2%
Mask Problem: 2%
Aspiration (water): 1%
Panic: 1%
No Problems Noted: approx. 10% occurrence

Quote: Divers Brought to the Catalina Chamber
--Did They Panic During the Dive?
Panicked: 33%
Did not Panic: 42%
Unknown: 25%

Quote: Divers Brought to the Catalina Chamber and
Suffering From AGE/Drowning/Near Drowning
--Did They Panic During the Dive?
Panicked: 51%
Did not Panic: 19%
Unknown: 30%

Quote:Cases from 1995 thru 2000
Of 154 Divers Brought to the Chamber:
76 (49%) Recompressed:
43 (57%) of which were DCS related
33 (43%) of which were Air Embolism related

78 (51%) Not Recompressed:
23 (29%) Rule Out AGE
23 (29%) Rule Out DCS
19 (24%) Near Drowning
9 (12%) Drowning
4 (5%) AGE/DCS Refused Treatment Against Medical Advice

19 (12%) Full Arrest --Fatalities