UK Diving Fatalities Review
The current BSAC Diving Incident database contains information that goes back to 1997 and the review paper contains information from this database drawn from the period 1st Jan 1998 to 31st December 2009 – a period of 12 years.
For the review each fatal incident was reviewed to establish, as far as possible, the primary factor that led to the death; where relevant secondary factors are also included. In some cases it is very clear exactly what happened but in a number of cases there is insufficient evidence to be certain of the events; in some of these cases the Author has included an assessment of the most likely explanation. Finally there were a number of cases where there is simply too little information to support any analysis of causal factors.
The paper can be downloaded from this site to further assist divers to understand some of the principle factors behind fatal diving incidents.
The published Annual Diving Incident Reports also available on this site provide further information on the range of non-fatal diving incidents that can help divers further understand and hopefully avoid becoming a statistic themselves.
Brian Cumming, NDC Safety and Incidents Advisor
Clare Peddie, BSAC Chair
Jim Watson, BSAC Safety & Development manager
Download copies of the presentation slide show that was used to sumarise and illustrate the paper at the conference