Eagles Nest death....

[diverdoug1]

Long ago I told my wife if I were to die or become profoundly incapacitated in a diving related accident, she was to give my dive buddies all the information she could find about my accident, and to encourage them to disseminate the information through the diving community (and to not have any concern as to what light the circumstances of my accident might put me in). It is a difficult subject to breach with a spouse, and hopefully a moot discussion, but I think it is as important for a technical diver to do, as is signing up for organ donation for the general population. I have also put similar instructions in my will.

 

[diverdoug1]

I agree, but I also see the number of hours many of us spend doing it far outweigh the deaths. There are a lot more people killed deer hunting every year than cave diving.

Below is a relative risk analysis of some recreational activities. These are fatalities per million hours of the activity. Scuba diving is listed, but is not stratified into types of diving. Next time someone tells you it is safer to fly than drive, make sure they aren't talking about taking a spin in their 172 Cessna!

General aviation 15.58
On-road motorcycling 8.80
Scuba diving 1.98
Living (all causes of death) 1.53
Swimming 1.07
Snowmobiling 0.88
Passenger cars 0.47
Water skiing 0.28
Bicycling 0.26
Flying (scheduled domestic airlines) 0.15
Hunting 0.08
Cosmic radiation from transcontinental flights 0.035
Home living (active) 0.027
Traveling in a school bus 0.022
Home living (including sleeping) 0.014
Residential fire 0.003

Data from Failure Analysis Associates, Inc (now Exponent Inc), Design News, 10 April 1993 (I know it is a bit old, but is what I found on short notice)

 

[Cave Diver]

Long ago I told my wife if I were to die or become profoundly incapacitated in a diving related accident, she was to give my dive buddies all the information she could find about my accident, and to encourage them to disseminate the information through the diving community (and to not have any concern as to what light the circumstances of my accident might put me in). It is a difficult subject to breach with a spouse, and hopefully a moot discussion, but I think it is as important for a technical diver to do, as is signing up for organ donation for the general population. I have also put similar instructions in my will.

I applaud the sentiment and have told my dive buddies something similar. If I die, it's likely because I did something stupid.

But something in the wording of this just lit a lightbulb for me and brings about a question. How much of the lack of information might be due to insurance? Anyone know of clauses in a policy that prevents life insurance from paying out if someone did something stupid or ignored basic safety rules?

 

[Cave Diver]

Below is a relative risk analysis of some recreational activities. These are fatalities per million hours of the activity.

Scuba diving 1.98

Passenger cars 0.47

So much for the "the most dangerous part is driving to a dive site" theory!

 

[Belmont]

I applaud the sentiment and have told my dive buddies something similar. If I die, it's likely because I did something stupid.

But something in the wording of this just lit a lightbulb for me and brings about a question. How much of the lack of information might be due to insurance? Anyone know of clauses in a policy that prevents life insurance from paying out if someone did something stupid or ignored basic safety rules?

I don't think there are clauses in life insurance policies that cover stupidity.

In many cases, insurance companies will pay even if you commit suicide after the policy is more than two years old.