Actual Diving Safety Stats?

[4thephil]

Can anyone tell me how safe diving actually is? Are there any stats?

For example, skydiving, in the year 2000, there were 30 fatalities out of 3.5 million skydives, equates to 1 out of 116,667, equates to skydiving being 1,878% safer than driving (source: Frequently Asked Questions | CPSC)

I've been youtubeing skydives and scuba diving fatalities, and am getting a little scared.

 

[Straegen]

The real stat is probably the fatality rate. We have a good idea on the average number of deaths per year which is somewhere around 150 in the US. Problem is we don't know how many divers or how many dives that represents since nobody that I know of compiles that info. It is speculated that around 25 million dives happen per year in the US. That makes scuba a very safe hobby. Move that number to even 10 million dives per year and it is still a safe hobby.

 

[don Francisco]

Take the numbers that Straegen gave you, and consider that a large number of the reported scuba deaths are actually health problems such as stroke and heart attacks that happened during dives.

Overall, I'd venture that a healthy recreational diver, is probably more likely to die travelling to a dive than on the dive itself.

One indicator of how safe diving is that recreational divers can still qualify for the lowest, most preferred rates from most life insurance companies. That indicates that the insurance companies, who track this stuff, consider diving safer than a host of other activities.

 

[Straegen]

I believe insurance companies use an approximate 200000 to 1 fatality rate which makes it a non-factor in getting life insurance.

I think we can say you are almost certainly more likely to die driving to/from a dive site than actually diving.

 

[David_57]

Check the stats on DAN's site from my understanding diving is one of the safest sports around

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Check the stats on DAN's site from my understanding diving is one of the safest sports around

Except for looking at trends the DAN site is not helpful to the orignal question since they track only a fraction of total accidents and deaths and do not track the number of dives those are related to.

 

[Vita.Vivente]

I believe insurance companies use an approximate 200000 to 1 fatality rate which makes it a non-factor in getting life insurance.

I think we can say you are almost certainly more likely to die driving to/from a dive site than actually diving.

As a life insurance guy in a previous career, I can tell you that life insurance underwriters do not care so much that you dive as they do how much you dive and how deep. If you dive regularly below 60 feet, they will likely want more detail and will add to your premium. And if you're a tek diver like myself, they get REALLY interested in how deep. A word of caution too. If you tell the life underwriters that you never dive below a certain depth, and you die at a depth that exceeds that, your survivors may have a more difficult time collecting. Don't think about scrimping on the premium; think about easing your survivors pain should they ever be so unfortunate as to have to use that policy!

 

[svs]

Can anyone tell me how safe diving actually is? Are there any stats?

For example, skydiving, in the year 2000, there were 30 fatalities out of 3.5 million skydives, equates to 1 out of 116,667, equates to skydiving being 1,878% safer than driving (source: Frequently Asked Questions | CPSC)

I've been youtubeing skydives and scuba diving fatalities, and am getting a little scared.

I am sorry to inform you but skydiving site plays with statistic a little. They compare fatality rate for skydiving with odds to die (per year) for driving???. In reality fatality rates for car driving (or plane) are 1 death per several millions of car (or plane) rides. So riding a car (ones) is safer then a single skydive. And it puts skydiving and scuba in similar category with 1 death per 100-200,000 dives.

 

[NudeDiver]

equates to skydiving being 1,878% safer than driving (source: Frequently Asked Questions | CPSC)

You can say anything you want with statistics, depending on how you use them, and esp. if you don't understand them.

The comparison with driving is particularly interesting.

Let's compare seconds of skydiving with seconds of driving, and then factor in the accidents. Guess which one is going to have the much higher fatality rate (deaths per second of activity).

Let's compare distance traveled while sky diving with distance traveled while driving, and then factor in the accidents. Guess which one is going to have a much higher fatality rate (deaths per foot traveled).

What is that 1878% figure actually comparing on the driving side? # of deaths per miles driven? If so, you're using different units to compare one with the other. It's not reasonable to compare a rate of deaths/jump against deaths/mile - they're apples and oranges. To make it reasonable, figure the deaths per foot traveled for both activities and then maybe you'll have something more reasonable. Or, if you wish, figure deaths per time someone gets in their car against deaths per skydive jump, and you're much closer to comparable units that make for a more reasonable analysis.

 

[Hillmorton Scubie]

Isn't the slight danger of scuba part of the fun?. Motorcycling, Mountain climbing, base jumping etc etc is all about enjoying the thrill and overcoming those dangers.