NDC Diving Incidents Report 1995

Introduction

This WWW document contains the 1995 Diving Incidents Report, produced by The British Sub- Aqua Club (BSAC) in the interest of promoting diving safety. It is important to note that it contains details of UK diving incidents occurring to divers of all affiliations, plus incidents occurring world-wide involving BSAC members.

Report Format

The majority of statistical information contained within this report is also shown in graphical form. Please note that all statistical information is generally produced from UK data only and does not include Overseas Incidents unless noted as 'All Incidents'.

Contents

The contents of this report are split into an overview of the year, details of nine incident categories plus some historical analyses. The various sections can be found as shown below:

• Overview
• Fatalities
• Decompression Incidents
• Injury / Illness
• Boating & Surface Incidents
• Ascent Problems
• Technique Problems
• Equipment Problems
• Miscellaneous Incidents
• Overseas Incidents
• Numerical & Statistical Analyses
• Reporting Incidents

Within each category the incidents are listed in the order of their occurrence, not necessarily that of Incident Reference.

They are laid out in the following form:

MONTH/YR OF INCIDENT INCIDENT REF.

Brief Narrative of Incident....................

The nature of many diving incidents is such that there is usually more than one cause or effect. Where this has happened the incident has been classified under the more appropriate cause or effect. For instance an incident involving a fast ascent, causing decompression illness will be classified under 'Decompression Incidents'.

Acknowledgments

The nature of this report requires that data is collected from several different sources. I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the following for their assistance in its production and in ensuring its completeness:

The Diving Diseases Research Centre (DDRC);
The British Hyperbaric Association (BHA);
Surgeon Commander James Francis, PhD, MSc, MB BS, RN, Head of Undersea Medicine, and his colleagues at The Institute Of Naval Medicine (INM);
Peter Brown, Coastguard Sport Diving Liaison Officer;
Mike Viasto, Sea Safety Liaison Officer, Royal National Lifeboat Institute;
and, in particular, all those divers that have taken the trouble to complete Incident Reports and share their learning experience with others.