Cave Diver fatalities
How do folks go about seeing accident reports for cave fatalities other than what is reported in the papers. We are supposed to learn from these tragedys, but yet only the chosen few actually learn what really happened.
Not trying to start a flame war... just wondering.
Rick
PM sent.
I hope it's okay to post the link but I read accident analysis on the IUCRR website. http://www.iucrr.org/
Some are more detailed then others but they seem to be up to date.
I read with reverence because but by the grace of God some of this stuff could happen to any of us.
RIP All.
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
Thanks Sludge & Caveranger...
It's very sobering to read, but I think everyone can benefit from learning what types of things can go wrong.
Rick
The American Caving Accidents (ACA) report is usually published by the NSS annually. There is mainly information on caving, but they do have cave diving and related incidents as well.
http://www.caves.org/pub/aca/
Even if you're just cave diving and interested in the subject it can still make for a worthwhile read. You can see how many of the same basic concepts apply.
The British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) maintains a similar list of incident reports.
http://www.caverescue.org.uk/
Marbry
I am afraid that it is French but you can get a world-wide perspective at http://www.plongeesout.com/ by clicking on "Accidents".
There has been some quantitative information about UK fatality rates published in last year's CDG newsletter. It is not online (yet) but here is the summary:
There were nine fatal UK cave diving incidents in the 26 years between 1980 and 2005. The overall fatality rate for all dives is estimated at 1 in 3,286 dives. Experience is identified as the main variable and an experienced diver is estimated to be 25 times more likely to survive a dive than an inexperienced diver. CDG Qualified Divers have an overall fatal incident rate of 1 in 28,438 dives whereas unqualified divers have a fatal incident rate of 1 in 1,125 dives.
The most significant hazard to experienced divers is inadequate line management and the most frequent major hazard to inexperienced divers is lack of training. Cave diving safety has advanced considerably over the last 26 years for experienced divers. An experienced cave diver is 39 times more likely to survive a dive than his counterpart from 26 years ago.
Unfortunately this improvement in diver safety has not been matched for inexperienced divers for whom the fatal incident rate improved by only a factor of 1.6 over the last 26 years. There remains a lot of work to be done in understanding the safety issues for new cave divers and in developing suitable training programmes and education opportunities to get them up the learning curve safely and quickly.
Bottom line:
Skilled caver divers: Watch your lines.
Novice cave divers: train, train and train.
pm me if you want the full article.
Great post David. I will pm you for more info. Please be sure and let me know if you get over here to dive again. My email has changed to cindyb3007@yahoo.com I lost your email when I moved into a new place. PM me please and we can play catch up. I also want to interest you and the CDG in participating in the Cave Diving Museum and Library. There is a growing interest in sidemount and sump diving in this country and you guys are the experts in my book. Cindy Butler
"Philosophy is a purely personal matter. A genuine philosopher's credo is the outcome of a single complex personality; it cannot be transferred. No two persons, if sincere, can have the same philosophy."
--Havelock Ellis
There are two articles available online at the CDG website that take an objective view on fatal cave diving incidents and try to provide some guidance on which hazards are most prominent.
The first is British Cave Diving Accidents and covers 11 fatalities from 1946 to 1978 available at:
http://www.cavedivinggroup.org.uk/Articles/BCDA.pdf
The second is The Learning Curve: A Quantitative Analysis of Fatal British Cave Diving Incidents from 1980 to 2005 covering nine fatalities and is available at:
http://www.cavedivinggroup.org.uk/Ar...urve060427.pdf
These are UK centric pieces and have all the associated problems of extrapolating quantitative estimates from small and frankly inadequate sample sizes. They do however give a yardstick. If you were to apply the risks identified in these articles to US cave diving you would also want to consider the effects of buddy diving and deep/mixed gas diving. These effects are lost in the UK but I suspect are significant in the US.
Further to collecting information on fatal incidents, the Cave Diving Group has just launched a system to collect incident information from near misses. The information is geared towards UK conditions which is generally side mounted in sumps.
More information at:
http://www.cavedivinggroup.org.uk/In...dentshome.html
Originally Posted by David Brock
Good one, that's exactly what the IRAP section right here on the CDF is for. The idea is to give everyone an idea of what might and can happen, to promote thoughtful discussion. It's anonymous and collects as much information as you care to give about an incident.
http://www.cavediver.net/irap/irap_frm.htm
Marbry
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