Divers Alert Network Scuba Diving Fatality Workshop Durham, North Carolina, April 8-10, 2010
Scuba diving is a safe sport, but fatalities occasionally occur which is undesirable in a recreational activity and a risk to the economic health of the industry. Recently published research by the Divers Alert Network (DAN) estimated the average fatality rate for insured DAN members to be 16.4 deaths per 100,000 divers. This compares to 35.5 fatal injuries per 100,000 persons in the United States, 16 traffic fatalities per 100,000 persons, and 13 fatal heart attacks per 100,000 joggers.
The most common injuries in diving deaths were identified as asphyxia, arterial gas embolism, and cardiac incidents. Deaths due to asphyxia and AGE were associated with entrapment, insufficient gas, rapid ascent, and equipment trouble. For cardiac incidents, associated factors were age and a history of cardiovascular disease. Divers over 50 years of age were 3-times more likely to die from asphyxia and 4-times more likely to die from AGE than were divers younger than 50. The risk of cardiac incidents, however, was 13-times greater for divers 50 or older.
In April 2010, DAN held a two-and-a-half day workshop in Durham, North Carolina to consider how to reduce scuba diving fatalities. More than 200 attendees from around the world, including representatives from the United States Navy, Coast Guard, academia, medicine and the recreational diving industry attended five half-day sessions covered a variety of topics, including: (a) on-scene investigation, equipment testing, medical examiner activities, and insurance underwriting of instructors; (b) factors most commonly associated with diving deaths in America/Canada, Europe, Germany, Britain, and Australia; (c) the role of training in reducing diving fatalities; (d) cardiovascular fitness, evaluation, and risk factors; and (e) consensus discussions regarding training and cardiovascular fitness.
David Concannon organized and led the Panel Discussion on Legal Issues Associated with Scuba Diving Fatalities for the DAN Fatality Workshop. The Legal Panel was comprised of five attorneys from Europe and the United States that collectively had more than eight decades of experience investigating and litigating hundreds of scuba fatality cases. The Panel described the shortcomings of scuba fatality investigations, problems associated with litigating scuba fatality cases and common occurrences in scuba diving fatalities.
Links
Click here for a copy of David Concannon's paper summarizing the Legal Panel presentation and related topics.
Click here for DAN's web page providing links to the conference proceedings.
Law Offices of David G. Concannon, LLC, 200 Eagle Road, Suite 116, Wayne, Pennsylvania 19087 Phone: (610) 293-8084 - Fax: (610) 293-8086 info@davidconcannon.com