Fatalities statistics: what kills people the most in scuba diving?

[FlyingSquid]

Hey duck, what estimated number would you come up with? Serious question, not intended as a challenge. For instance, I started out thinking of how many divers dive every day just on Kho Tao alone.

I would say most people would dive at least two cylinders, so the average number of dives per day is likely to be above two. Let's say, 2.5.

Based on this post, I estimate there are some 1 million active scuba divers worldwide.

Then from the numbers, each active diver dives on average 20million / 1million / 2.5 = 8 days per year.

Note that I'm massively simplifying things. I assume most dives are rec with single tanks, that "active" means at least one dive a year, and so on. Just to find the average days/year. Averages aren't everything, though, of course.

 

[raftingtigger]

Forty percent of the fatalities took place during a period of buddy separation; 14 percent involved declared solo dives.

This can be read two ways. 14% of fatalities involved declared solo dives. OR 14% of 40% (or 5.6%) of fatalities involved declared solo dives. A significant difference. It also begs the question. How many of the declared solo dives were trained and equipped for solo diving?

 

[nimoh]

This can be read two ways. 14% of fatalities involved declared solo dives. OR 14% of 40% (or 5.6%) of fatalities involved declared solo dives. A significant difference. It also begs the question. How many of the declared solo dives were trained and equipped for solo diving?

I took it to mean that 40% involved buddy separation, 46% did not involve buddy separation, and 14% involved solo diving. This makes it look like solo diving is safer, but if there are much less divers doing solo diving then the mortality rate of solo diving would be higher.

 

[mdb]

I believe solo diving is very safe and have been solo for most of my 40 years of diving.

The first 4-5 years I was diving with "buddies", after a few buddy incidents. and spending
way too much time watching "team members" I went solo. Way more relaxing and way more fun IMO.

 

[nimoh]

I believe solo diving is very safe and have been solo for most of my 40 years of diving.

The first 4-5 years I was diving with "buddies", after a few buddy incidents. and spending
way too much time watching "team members" I went solo. Way more relaxing and way more fun IMO.

not sure how my last post was interpreted, but I didn't mean to say that solo diving is more dangerous than team diving, just that the stats are skewed.

 

[raftingtigger]

My post wasn't to either denigrate or promote solo diving. It was primarily to make the reader think about how changing the way a statistic is read can drastically change its meaning. It was also because I'm curious to see what DAN stats say about the relative safety of trained and properly equipped solo diving. A question that wasn't answered when I emailed DAN last year.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The three things that kill most divers are Arrogance, Greed and Complacency.

Arrogant divers feel that it can't happen to them. They talk it up as if they are better divers than anyone around them, and should be looked up to. The ocean doesn't care about your trim or how nice your scooter looks.

Greedy divers tend to feel that the lobster hiding way back in the hole is worth the last 100 psi in their tank. I've seen divers pop up and give a sigh of relief for reaching the surface. The ocean doesn't care if you run out of air.

Complacent divers feel that the number of dives they have precludes them from having an accident. Dive planning, equipment checks and keeping up with the latest knowledge about dive safety is not their concern. If they haven't been hurt by now, it won't happen. The ocean doesn't care how many dives you have.

 

[Divejones]

The three things that kill most divers are Arrogance, Greed and Complacency.

The ocean doesn't care how many dives you have.

precisely, Poor Skills and lack of continuity and of course panic, statistically i guess they rank the highest causes for accidents

 

[Darol]

MaxBottomtime said:

The three things that kill most divers are Arrogance, Greed and Complacency.

I would respectfully disagree.

 

[Ayisha]

Don't forget that running out of air was huge in the stats too