More L.A. County fatality stats (Casino Point & others)

[Ken Kurtis]

From the best number I can find scuba deaths in the US range from 100-125 annually over the past decade.

Too high. I think the most we ever had (as tracked by DAN - American & Canadian divers diving in North America or abroad & foreign divers diving in the US) was 123. The average used to be around 90/year but that's dropped in the last few years. I think the number I use in my lectures now is about 81/year based on the DAN criteria. If I get some time tomorrow, I'll see if I can dig up actual numbers for the last 10 years.

That's safer than many activities.

Yes. Here are some numbers of other sports from a Bill Gifford Men's Journal magazine article in 2009, total deaths past 5 years per 1,000 participants:

Summiting K2 (world's second-highest mountain) - 104 (in other words 10% of the people who attempt to summit die trying)
Base jumping - 44
Hang gliding - 3.8 (think of that next time you're in san Diego around Torrey Pines)
Skydiving - 3.3 (there's no such thing as a free DEscent)
Scuba diving - 0.6

- Ken

 

[AfterDark]

As I recall according to DAN, at least half of diver deaths are related to OOA or low on air causes. Yet the agencies fail to teach even basic gas management in BOW or AOW.

I've only been diving about 8 years (500+ dives) and first learned my gas management from Lamont's Rock Bottom paper. Thanks again Lamont!!

Teaching gas mangerment became "obsolete" with the introduction of the SPG. Back when all we had was a Jvalve and 72 cuft tank we KNEW how much air we needed to do a dive, which was usually all of it.

 

[drbill]

If I read his post correctly, I think Peter may be confused between the L.A. County Underwater Unit's certification program and dive statistics for L. A. County. As Ken pointed out, the number of divers even in L.A. County actually certified by LAC is a relatively small number. Most who live here are, like much of the rest of the world, certified by PADI. In fact, I've had PADI instructors from Los Angeles not even know what an LAC certification was.

I was LAC certified back in the 60s. It was a very rigorous course and my instructor was very demanding. I'm not even sure LAC offers OW certification any more, but their ADP program is tops.

 

[boulderjohn]

I was LAC certified back in the 60s. It was a very rigorous course and my instructor was very demanding. I'm not even sure LAC offers OW certification any more, but their ADP program is tops.

Welcome to LA County Scuba! - Home of the Underwater Instructor Certification Course!

 

[Shasta_man]

<<Instruction already mentions watching your pressure gauge while diving; instructors need to do a much better job of emphasizing it during the training.>>

You can't teach common sense and responsibility. If an individual doesn't immediately grasp the significance of their AIR SUPPLY, before any real scuba training, I don't think it's a problem of not enough emphasis on your essential needs. While the diver may not know the rate at which it will be used, and how depth affects the rate of consumption, they have to realize that they need to check it periodically and should err on the side of caution.

 

[Okie Mike]

I hold my gauges in my hand while diving for a variety of reasons (keep it from dragging, remind me to not swim with my arms, now out of habit) including that it is an easy peak down to see depth and pressure. I used to be an air hog too so I monitored my rate of use to try to slow it down. I am always amazed that someone can run out of air without knowing it (assuming gauge is working properly).

 

[boulderjohn]

I am always amazed that someone can run out of air without knowing it (assuming gauge is working properly).

I had an interesting experience not long ago when teaching an AOW class. The two students had a decent number of experience dives, but none had been very deep. On the first day of class we did the more benign dives and noticed that one of them was going through air pretty quickly. The next day we started off with the deep dive. Using the results from the day before, we did a rough calculation of the divers' SAC rates in order to estimate how much gas they would need for the dive. Then I had them work out a dive plan for a multi-level dive. We were going to go down a wall to almost 100 feet and look at some interesting sights there. Then when one of them hit a certain pressure, we were to ascend to a shallower level and follow the wall until one of them hit the next target pressure, then ascend and return along the wall at a very shallow depth until the next target pressure, ascend to a safety stop, and finish the dive.

We hit the first depth after a pretty normal descent, and I was just showing them what was there when the one guy who had gone through air quickly signaled he had hit the target pressure already. We ascended and spent about half the time on the wall we expected before we had to ascend again. To cut the story short, he got out of the water after his safety stop with 400 PSI in an AL 80. I was not using an AL 80, but if I had been, I would have used less than 800 PSI. I am pretty good with air, but not that good.

For some reason as soon as we went deep, his already poor air consumption turned into a disastrous air consumption rate, far more than expected. I assure you that if they had been just two buddies out for a dive and didn't check their air until they would typically have done during a dive, that guy would have gone OOA. Fortunately, he learned that lesson in a class where that was all being closely monitored.

 

[diverrex]

I had an interesting experience not long ago when teaching an AOW class. The two students had a decent number of experience dives, but none had been very deep. On the first day of class we did the more benign dives and noticed that one of them was going through air pretty quickly. The next day we started off with the deep dive. Using the results from the day before, we did a rough calculation of the divers' SAC rates in order to estimate how much gas they would need for the dive. Then I had them work out a dive plan for a multi-level dive. We were going to go down a wall to almost 100 feet and look at some interesting sights there. Then when one of them hit a certain pressure, we were to ascend to a shallower level and follow the wall until one of them hit the next target pressure, then ascend and return along the wall at a very shallow depth until the next target pressure, ascend to a safety stop, and finish the dive.

We hit the first depth after a pretty normal descent, and I was just showing them what was there when the one guy who had gone through air quickly signaled he had hit the target pressure already. We ascended and spent about half the time on the wall we expected before we had to ascend again. To cut the story short, he got out of the water after his safety stop with 400 PSI in an AL 80. I was not using an AL 80, but if I had been, I would have used less than 800 PSI. I am pretty good with air, but not that good.

For some reason as soon as we went deep, his already poor air consumption turned into a disastrous air consumption rate, far more than expected. I assure you that if they had been just two buddies out for a dive and didn't check their air until they would typically have done during a dive, that guy would have gone OOA. Fortunately, he learned that lesson in a class where that was all being closely monitored.

I could be wrong but it would not surprise me to find out that many of the OOA situations involve a diver going deeper than usual and not having experience at how much faster they use air while deep and not knowing enough to monitor it more closely the deeper they are. When I get to 100 FSW I probably look at my air (and NDL) about once a minute, at 40 FSW I don't look nearly so often.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I've got a preliminary count of the DAN-tracked fatality stats, US & Canadian citizens, as published in their annual reports. Realize the data in the reports is two years behind the date of the report. So the 2008 report (the last one they published) is based on the 2006 data. I've got a request in to one of my sources at DAN for the data from 2007-2011 if they have it.

But here's what I've got so far, by decade:

1970-1979 (1,236 total): High - 147, low - 102, average - 124
1980-1989 (903 total): High - 114, low - 70, average - 90
1990-1999 (877 total): High - 104, low - 67, average - 88
2000-2006 (598 total - but only 7 years): High - 91, low - 75, average - 85

Highest year: 1976 - 144
Lowest year: 1991 - 67

Note that the average deaths/decade does drop every ten years. Again remember that this is just the numerator. We don't know the denominator. The drop could be due to less divers, less dives, better training, or better rescue techniques saving people who would have otherwise died. We just don't know and probably have no definitive way of determnining the real answer.

- Ken

 

[drbill]

Interesting stats, Ken... good to see the numbers declining. As you say, we only have the numerator. My guess is the denominator keeps growing through that same time period, making the decline as a percentage of people diving drop even faster. But that's just a guess! I see a LOT more divers these days than I did back in the 60s and 70s... but then I lived at an isolated location!