the right to know...

[orbiter]

i do not know how local dive laws, rules and regulations are brought to life in other countries but out here there is a diving authority which works under the ministry of education and sports. saddly enough, there is a dive accident once in a while, what is sadder is that the inquires of these diving accidents along with recomodations and preventive information are not publicly circulated (with the pretense of guarding the individual's privacy).
when you have a diving accident in your country - do you have access to the data on the post accident inquiry? are these inquiries publicly published?
p.s
i feel that knowledge of the dive accident is essential to alert divers to what went wrong? what could be done? and how to prevent future accidents. in order to protect the individual's privacy - dont publish names or dive clubs - but give us the data, it might help save lives in the future.

 

[mndolphin]

I have never seen that kind of info anywhere but here. I too thinkit is important to know these things so that you can hoefully keep yourself and your buddy safe.
Must be accurate though, there are a lot of inaccurate stories.

 

[WreckWriter]

I read accident reports on an all too regular basis. They're published all over the Net and there are discussion groups too. Sometimes you see the official report, sometimes a report written by the person that did the recovery, sometimes that of a witness. Oftentimes more useful data can be gleaned from the unofficial report than from the official.

If you want to read reports, try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/divingaccidents/ . This group is run by a DAN doctor and contains lots of info. Oftentimes you will also find reports and solid discussion right here on ScubaBoard (in my opinion the best all-around diving discussion resource anywhere).

DAN also makes reports available to members (you are a DAN member, aren't you?)

Tom

 

[orbiter]

accuracy is the reason for my call for a release of information through a public authority - a responsible group of people who know the facts

 

[orbiter]

and though i was thinking of becoming a dan member - i am not one at this time (maybe sometime...). i think that a local diving authority should have a site exactlly like the one you gave me - giving out the formal inquiry.

 

[WreckWriter]

orbiter once bubbled...
accuracy is the reason for my call for a release of information through a public authority - a responsible group of people who know the facts

The problem with that, depending on who it is, is that they often don't know much about diving.

Tom

 

[orbiter]

they are thourough pro's

 

[The Iceni]

orbiter once bubbled...
they are thorough pro's

In this country we do have access to accident statistics but two things concern me, which I fear will not make me popular.

1) The vast majority of pathologists are not diving doctors and tend to attribute most diving deaths either to drowning or to DCI alone, and

2) Most published reports provide very little detail of the underlying causes of the accident from which we all could learn.

It seems to me that the attitude is "The casualty was diving and diving is dangerous sport, so what more need be said."

Sadly this does appear to be driven by political correctness in order to "protect the sensibilities of the bereaved". It seems one must not speak ill of the dead even if they may have been diving way beyond their capabilities or were taking unecessary risks.

 

[dvas]

Hi,
opposed to DAN in US, DAN Europe - which I am member of - does not have the login option on their site. I understood from a fellow diver in US, that after loging to DAN in US, you can see the reports.

sasha

 

[wcharz]

Here in Austria divers have AFAIK no access to official accident reports, reports in the newspapers are usually poor, but diving-journals occasionally publish some serious informations about recent diving accidents.