You said:

>I agree with you on the analysis , and I would like to go back and look
>at cave diving accidents and look at the AED. There just can not be that
>many dopes - it has to be that depth and confusion with a mild narcosis
>did the trick ( the real deep ones like Parker are obvious).

George,

Actually, this started out as an attempt to help a reporter with her 
rather narrow focus of cave diving deaths in the Bahamas. But you are 
right, such information would be invaluable. When I first started cave 
diving in 1990 one of the first books I read was Exley's BLUEPRINT FOR 
SURVIVAL. Accident Analysis was at the core of making cave diving safer. 
It was the structure on which modern safe cave diving hung. And for 8 
long years we went without a fatality! What sport could boast such a 
safety record? Hell, GOLF was probably statistically more dangerous 
during those years!

I have been saying for some time, however, that Accident Analysis seems 
to have gone by the wayside. The focus seems to be elsewhere. Could it be 
that with so many people trying to make a living off of cave diving that 
talking about fatalities is considered to be bad for business? Certainly 
none of the certifying agencies are doing any kind of annual report on 
cave diving accidents. The NSS does one, but it's woefully incomplete. 

In doing research for the Herald's reporter I came across a great many 
statistics and of those, I found that skydiving organizations apparently 
keep and publish their fatality reports and do analysis on them. I found 
the same in many areas, motorcycling, climbing, you name it, you can find 
fatality info/lists on the web. BUT NOT CAVE DIVING! A sport whose basic 
tenets of safety were created out of analyzing cave diving accidents and 
fatalities has almost completely abandoned that practice. And why? 
Certainly, it's still relevant, hell, the original "blueprint" published 
by Exley has as number three: "Avoid Deep Diving in Caves." And what 
seems to be the biggest killer in cave diving today? Going deep on air.

I am looking into this, I think it's way overdue. Although I'm not sure 
of the most successful approach. I have contacted the CDS keeper of the 
Accident files and I will do the same with the NACD. I'll order the DAN 
yearly report of dive accidents which just came out for 1997. Apart from 
that I think that searching the techdiver and cavers archives will yield 
some reports and perhaps there should be a call for reports on the 
internet. I can certainly do that on Compuserve, but I don't have an AOL 
account.

I spoke with the CDS webmaster, Robert Laird about this and he indicated 
that, while the CDS has a place to report accidents, they rarely get 
reports on that page. If the NACD and the NSS-CDS are acquiring and 
maintaining such files, it certainly isn't well-known! There really does 
need to be a clearing house, going forward, that divers worldwide know is 
THE place to report tech diving accidents. Then those reports could be 
disbursed to the certifying agencies. 

>Joel, let me know if you would like some collaboration on your effort
>here - we might really get some eye openers .

Thanks, your assistance would be invaluable. If you have further info on 
your "deep air" list, that would be great. And any suggestions you have, 
I'd appreciate.

Later,

JoeL
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