Posted by Wayne on October 02, 2000 at 16:03:00:
In Reply to: Re: To MHK , Eins, et al - How do we prevent solo deaths? kinda long posted by MHK on October 02, 2000 at 15:41:25:
Gosh I hate statistics sometimes. You said:
"I believe that the majority of experienced divers can/will be able to survive 90% of the dives that go as planned." So I must be a cat and have way more than 9 lives! If 100 dives shouid have killed me 10 times, then I should expect to die on every 10th dive!
OK, I know exactly what you meant, but the example is a real problem since we do not have the real stats available to us and we are only looking at one factor (buddy). If diving was a 90% survivable sport I would not dive. But the actual numbers look pretty good compared to other non-couch sports. The true delta of solo versus buddies and buddied with a stranger versus buddied with someone with whom you mave a history together probably do not make up much difference overall (only because the safety fo the sport is so high).
Of course we all want to dive safer, and the discussion will lead to that. But to use numbers like 90% just allows the argument to get personal rather than clinical.
Wayne