The Law Offices of David G. Concannon, LLC

We are currently developing a schedule of speaking programs on legal and business topics for 2010.  To attend a presentation, please review this list of locations, dates and times.  To schedule a presentation, please contact the office at (610) 293-8084.  Thank you. 

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.

These unfortunate events are of concern to the entire diving community, and DAN has organized a two-and-a-half day workshop on April 8-10, 2010 to consider how their occurrence might be reduced. Five half-day sessions will cover: (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.

The workshop will be held at the Durham Hilton, 3800 Hillsboro Rd., Durham, North Carolina.  For further details, contact the DAN Research Department at jmoore@dan.org or 919-684-2948.  Click here for a copy of the Conference brochure and regstration application.