TIL that most commercial diving accidents happen in less than 30 feet of water

I was reading through some old safety reports from the Diving Safety Board last night. Turns out around 60% of fatalities in our field happen in water shallower than 30 feet. All those deep water hazard courses I took and the real danger was right there near the surface. Found it in their 2022 annual report. Anyone else's training focus mostly on deep stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_ellis4d ago

Respectfully I see this a bit differently. Most of the shallow water accidents come from simple things like boat traffic, entanglement, or panic from a student diver. The deep water stuff involves equipment failure, narcosis, and decompression sickness which are usually way more serious when they happen. A panicked diver at 20 feet can usually just stand up or be pulled out, but a regulator failure at 130 feet is a whole different ballgame with way less margin for error. The stats just show more shallow water work happens period, not that it's more dangerous.

sean_foster524d ago

So what's your take on the actual fatality stats then... do they separate by depth or just lump everything into "diving accidents"? Seems like that would make a big difference in figuring out where the real risk is. I've read a few accounts where guys died at 80 feet from something stupid like a free-flowing regulator they couldn't get under control, but that same gear failure at 30 feet would've been just annoying. Depth changes everything about how bad a simple mistake can get.