Posted by Wayne on September 07, 2001 at 00:09:37:
In Reply to: Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa posted by MHK on September 06, 2001 at 16:38:53:
No question that we kill or injure too many divers around these parts. It is easy to blame training standards and/or lack of adherance to them. It is easy to point out that if buddy teams trained together in emergency procedures the numbers would be dramatically reduced. It is easy to see that dive planning including equipment planning and air/depth/time planning would solve most of the problems that lead to the statistics.
But all that being said, I would like to explore what has happened in these cases and see what practical things are suggested to deal with the top 80% -- while realizing that the divers will show up with the typical training and experience for the next several years to come.
We know for example that some statistics came from very experienced divers and some form infrequent and underqualified divers. Some will be related to health problems not directly caused by diving (stroke, anneurism, cardiac arrest, etc.) And some may even come from equipment problems.
Some of these are not going to be preventable. And some can be avoided by instituting small changes (like a proper buddy check including checking air guages before the dive or changes in how the boat DM does the briefing requireing a bit more interaction with the divers before they enter the water).
I think we need to look carefully at which things are killing our fellow divers and see what we can do about it. But the research needs to come first, then the conclusions, and the action plan comes last.
I think Mr. Walker has a good start on collecting the raw data. I have heard references to it but never seen it. I think others may also have some pieces to the puzzle. I suggest we examine the data and see where it leads us.
Wayne