Posted by Eins on September 25, 2000 at 22:27:03:
In Reply to: Re: It is not solo diving per se that kills, it is attitude. posted by Les Jackson on September 25, 2000 at 20:46:47:
Statistics can be a bitch. If DAN says that 13% of dive fatalities involve solo divers, that does not mean that buddy diving is more often a cause for death. What DAN is not giving us (and I don't understand why not) is what the solo dive share is of all dives in total. Only then can we weigh those 13% and come to a meaningful conclusion. Right now, it means nothing.
To give you an example:
If the solo share is, say, 10%, then, of 1,000,000 dives total, 100,000 dives would be solo, 900,000 would be buddy dives.
62 solo deaths are now .62 fatalities per thousand dives, while there are only .46 per thousand buddy dives.
These numbers will change with the solo share, and I think 10% may be high. If the share is less, the number of deaths per solo dives would be higher.
Eins