Posted by Ken Kurtis on February 06, 2001 at 09:52:57:
(Eins wrote in a thread below) "I hear the voices asking why so many solo deaths and so few "buddy" deaths."
Here are the stats from 1999 that DAN released at DEMA (the book is actually called the "2001 Edition"). Here's the DAN statement and criteria (p. 17 of the report):
"At present, DAN collects information provided by investigators on all reported fatalities except for commercial divers, free divers, military divers and non-U.S. residents."
Draw your own conclusions from the numbers.
1999 - 78 deaths (59 men, 19 women)
# divers - including victim - in the immediate group (This is from a bar graph so I may be off by one or two in either direction. Remember too that this is DAN's definition. Some may disgaree that 10 people can be a buddy team. Others may disagree on what constitues a solo dive. I believe the standard DAN uses is entered the water alone or there was a planned buddy seperation during the dive. I don't believe they classify unplanned buddy seperation as solo.)
1 (solo diver) - 5
2 (traditional buddy team) - 34
3 to 5 - 19
6 to 10 - 10
More than 10 - 10
Breathing gas (although not broken out in the report, this info was givein to me byCelia Evesque on the DAN Medical Research staff)
Air - 66
Nitrox - 3
Mixed gas - 5
Unknown - 4
Copies of the full 84-page report, including a summary of all 78 fatalities (a very interesting leanring toll IMHO) can be purchased from DAN (member price) for $22. Product # is 401-5300 and I think it's simply called the "2001 Dive Accident & Fatality Report."
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, Ca.