Dive incident reports

[Vettster]

Hi all,
Anyone know if the PADI Dive Incident Reports are available for review?
I recently heard of an uncontrolled ascent injury accident that happened in our area and was wondering if I could read about it.
I e-mailed PADI about a week ago and have yet to receive a response.
Thanks all & Dive Safe,
Vettster

 

[luvdiving]

Good question Vettster.

I've never seen all final reports published, even in the PADI Members Journel. PADI does spotlight selected accidents, so the diving community can benifit from accidents that should not have happened. :boom:

 

[Ontario Diver]

Probably not due to privacy issues. Maybe if you were either involved or a party with a need-to-know (Insurance, Lawyer, Law Enorcement), you could request it through legal channels.

But just because you are interested (however legitamatly), I doubt it.

Just my .02c

 

[Vettster]

Then what does PADI (or any the other organizations, for that matter) do with this information?
Seems to me that we would all learn from these reports.
I just sent them another e-mail with a link to this post. Lets see if they reply to this.

Thanks all & Dive Safe,
Vettster

 

[Ontario Diver]

Can't say for certain (because I'm not there )

Maintaining records may used for;
1) legal reasons with regard to liability Insurance
2) Statistical research on equipment issues
3) statistical research on diver knowledge to "tune" the courses
4) assistance to the courts in liability issues (single point of contact, record of all "expert" witnesses)


Up here, any record that includes names or other information that can be used to uniquely identify people has to be protected from public exposure. But statistical information garnered from the accumulation can be released to the public as long as it cannot be used to determine information about a specific individual.

I've done a lot of work in Insurance companies, and security/privacy concerns are treated very seriously.

 

[Vettster]

Just got confirmation that PADI has read my e-mail.
I want to make it clear that I am not trying to bash PADI. (or any other agency)
It's just that last week I heard of this accident locally and wanted to research it. I think we can all learn from past accounts.

Dive Save,

Vettster

 

[Vettster]

Now we know.
Here is the PADI response:

Dear Frank,

Thank you for your email. It appears you've sent an earlier query that
was not replied to. I've checked my mailbox and didn't find it, but
it's possible it was forwarded to someone else or lost due to hardware
problems we've been having with email. Please forgive my delay in
responding.

As was speculated on the bulletin board, any incident reports provided
to PADI are considered preapred in anticipation of litigation and are
therefore confidential and not released except on the direction of legal
counsel or by court order. However, PADI does publish articles and
produce risk management scenarios (Member Forum, DEMA and Risk
Management on the Road) using facts of actual cases as examples.

I'm not able to detemine if the incident you mentioned was reported to
PADI as I'm not sure what you meant by "recent." Also, keep in mind
that reports are only required by PADI Members. If there was no PADI
Member present we would not anticipate receipt of a report. If you
have more details on this incident, they would be appreciated so we can
follow up as apporpriate.

Overall I can tell you that most incident reported to PADI appear to
result from issues and inherent risks of diving of which we are all
aware - diving in conditions or environments without proper training,
experience or equipment; diving without consideration for physical or
mental condition or under the influence; ignoring safe diving practices
- dive plan, buddy checks, buddy diving, time and depth issues,
controlled ascents, safety stops; and not following emergency procedures
- establishing positive buoyancy, lost buddy search (one minute) and
ascent, etc.

As responsible divers (and if applicable, dive professionals) we should
realize and reinforce to ourselves (and our students) that the
information learned during our diving education is applicable to all of
us - regardless of the level of experience or training. We must follow
the rules and recognize that even then, diving has inherent risks that
can not be eliminated.

If you have specific questions feel free to contact me directly at
patf@padi.com or via phone at +1 949.858.7234, or 800.729.7234,
extension 326.




Sincere regards,


Patricia A. Fousek
Director
Legal & Risk Management
PADI Worldwide
patf@padi.com

http://www.padi.com

+1 949.858.7234, ext 326
(800) 729.7234, ext 326
+1 949.858.8467 fax

>>> "FJL Technical Services Inc" <fjltech@infosel.net.mx> 12/03/01
12:00PM >>>
Gentlemen,
Not receiving any response from my inquiry to PADI, i posted the
question on
the Scubaboard.
It is generating some interest.Please feel free to reply.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t4700/s.html

Thank You,
F. J. Lehnerz
PADI DM# 176697

That does answer my question.
Thank you Pat.

 

[Butch103]

thanks for keeping us updated. The answer although responsible was not a surprise. In todays sprit and trend to litigating, we have to "protect in innocent" until proven guilty in a recoganized court of law.

 

[Vettster]

Butch103,
No problem!
Your'e right. The answer was not too suprising. What with all the litigation going on and so forth.
I was kind of hoping that as a PADI Professional, I could get some additional information on the mishap.

Dive Safe
Vettster

 

[vicky]

It is a good idea to see some accident reports and try to learn from mistakes of others. You can try the "lessons for life" in scubadiving magazine:
http://scubadiving.com/training/lessons/

There are lots of cases and statistics in BSAC's site:
http://216.150.74.119/techserv/increp01/intro.htm

from there you can navigate to previous years, fatalities tables, statistics, etc.

I hope that these can enlighten you.
If you'd like to see more links with diving incidents, let me know. Unfortunately, there are too many links... :upset: