Role of the Coast Guard

[Wookie]

The USGC is mostly concerned that commercial and to lesser degree private vessels adhere to the USCG regulations on safety. If you read all the regulations the only thing related to diving is related to vessels restricted in ability to maneuver which means the vessel can not freely maneuver because of the nature of the work it is involved in, diving operations being one of several such as dredging. This is to warn other vessels of that vessels inability to maneuver by signal such as day shapes, ball, diamond, ball and lights at night, red, white, red lights.

The USCG does not require a vessel to carry any special equipment specific to diving such as oxygen.
In the commercial diving industry OSHA is the entity that mandates diving related safety procedures. In recreational diving this is relagated to insurance companies and individial shop or boat owner. On private boats it is whatever the boat owner wants to do.

All true. Additionally, the Coast Guard has adopted OSHA diving rules by reference, since OSHA does not really extend past state waters (kind of). So if you violate commercial diving rules in federal waters, you will still get a fine. It just comes from USCG instead of OSHA.

 

[Diver Tim]

In the Air Force, whenever there is an accident or incident, there are two investigations. A safety investigation (they get first dibs) and an accident investigation.

[pedant] I don't believe they convene an accident investigation board for every mishap, just when there is sufficient reason to believe that there were bad acts on someone's part that could merit some sort of unfavorable administrative or judicial action. [/pedant]

And then the results of the [safety] investigation are published with findings and recommendations. It is a very powerful tool.

(The accident investigation is the exact opposite thing. Rights are read [if appropriate], liability is assessed, and guilty parties are punished.)

Another important thing to note is that USAF safety reports are not releasable to the public. I don't know for sure, but I think they might be FOIA-exempt.

 

[Sas]

Both BSAC and DAN Asia Pacific release accident reports (with no personal info other than gender and age I believe). I am not sure about other places.

Here is a link to the BSAC Diving Incident Reports for the last bunch of years: Annual Diving Incident Report - British Sub Aqua Club

The DAN one was issued in one of their magazines that I get for being a DAN member. I think maybe they do it annually? I couldn't find it online with a quick search (don't have more time to look at the moment) but if I do later I'll post it.

 

[TSandM]

Mike, I can tell you that the one fatality in which I was intimately involved was investigated by no one. An autopsy was done at the request of the FAMILY. To my knowledge, no investigation of the diver's equipment was done at all.

One of the big problems with diving is the number of accidents where sketchy or no information is available.