Number of recorded diving fatalities in the UK 1965-2019
SCUBA diving is a form of underwater diving practiced both professionally and recreationally wherein the diver utilizes a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) to breathe compressed air underwater. Recreational SCUBA diving has seen a substantial rise in popularity in recent years, particularly amongst female participants.
Benefits
There is a diverse list of reasons as to why people choose to participate in recreational diving. It allows you to explore a range of otherwise inaccessible ecosystems; experience feelings of weightlessness; improve both physical and mental wellbeing; develop non-verbal communication skills and expose yourself to exhilarating and exciting situations.
Risks
Inspite of these benefits, SCUBA diving is accompanied by a substantial degree of risk due to the elevated potential occurrence of decompression sickness, a range of barotrauma and lung overexpansion injuries, hyperventilation, blackout, gas narcosis, and oxygen toxicity. To reduce these risks and promote safe diving practice the Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) was founded in 1999 and is dedicated to the development and enforcement of minimum recreational diving training standards for the various scuba diving certification agencies across the world.
Fatalities
SCUBA diving fatalities are deaths which occur either whilst SCUBA diving or as a consequence of SCUBA diving. Inexperience; inadequate supervision; insufficient pre-dive briefings; buddy separation; and dive conditions beyond the diver’s training, experience or physical capacity are all factors that increase the risk of a dive accident and have the potential to result in a fatality.
This statistic presents the number of recorded diving fatalities between 1965 and 2019 within the United Kingdom (UK). The greatest number of diving fatalities within the UK occurred in 1972 when 41 fatalities were recorded. Perhaps the most shocking about this feature is the relative change from 1971, in which where were only four fatalities recorded. Despite significant changes in the number of SCUBA divers within the UK, the number of fatalities has remained relatively stable from 1979 to 2019 suggesting that improvements in technology, knowledge or training have had a significant influence over this period.
Benefits
There is a diverse list of reasons as to why people choose to participate in recreational diving. It allows you to explore a range of otherwise inaccessible ecosystems; experience feelings of weightlessness; improve both physical and mental wellbeing; develop non-verbal communication skills and expose yourself to exhilarating and exciting situations.
Risks
Inspite of these benefits, SCUBA diving is accompanied by a substantial degree of risk due to the elevated potential occurrence of decompression sickness, a range of barotrauma and lung overexpansion injuries, hyperventilation, blackout, gas narcosis, and oxygen toxicity. To reduce these risks and promote safe diving practice the Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) was founded in 1999 and is dedicated to the development and enforcement of minimum recreational diving training standards for the various scuba diving certification agencies across the world.
Fatalities
SCUBA diving fatalities are deaths which occur either whilst SCUBA diving or as a consequence of SCUBA diving. Inexperience; inadequate supervision; insufficient pre-dive briefings; buddy separation; and dive conditions beyond the diver’s training, experience or physical capacity are all factors that increase the risk of a dive accident and have the potential to result in a fatality.
This statistic presents the number of recorded diving fatalities between 1965 and 2019 within the United Kingdom (UK). The greatest number of diving fatalities within the UK occurred in 1972 when 41 fatalities were recorded. Perhaps the most shocking about this feature is the relative change from 1971, in which where were only four fatalities recorded. Despite significant changes in the number of SCUBA divers within the UK, the number of fatalities has remained relatively stable from 1979 to 2019 suggesting that improvements in technology, knowledge or training have had a significant influence over this period.
