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WINTER 2012
D
ivers Alert
Network ®
(DAN® ) takes
great pride
in being “your dive safety
association,” and for more
than 30 years we have been
conducting research to help
make diving safer. Recently,
DAN researchers reviewed
our accumulated fatality
data and conducted a root
cause analysis of nearly
1,000 recreational diving
fatalities to determine what
circumstances and events
lead to diver deaths. In this
analysis, DAN researchers
identified four different
phases in the cascade of
events leading to a fatality:
the trigger, the disabling
agent, the disabling injury
and the cause of death.
As the earliest identifiable
root causes that transform
dives into emergencies,
the triggers merit special
attention. Identifying these
triggers is essential so divers
can avoid or manage them
during dives.
In the fatality analysis, the triggers were
identified as follows:
Running out of breathing gas
41%
Entrapment
21%
Equipment problems
15%
Rough water
10%
Trauma
6%
Buoyancy
4%
Inappropriate gas
3%
Running Out Of BReathing gas
The most significant trigger was
running out of breathing gas. To put
this in context, approximately 400
divers from the cases studied might
be alive today had they managed
their gas supply correctly. Because
of the equipment standard in diving
today, running out of breathing gas
underwater, especially before any
other problems occur, should simply
never happen.
Be “air aware.” Always begin dives
with a full cylinder of breathing gas,
and end dives (standing on the boat,
dock or shore) with gas remaining.
Before starting a dive, you and your
fellow divers should decide how
you will communicate information
about your remaining gas supplies
DIVE SAFET
BY DAN ORR
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