Are You a Reckless or a Responsible D(r)iver?

By: Peter B. Bennett, Ph.D., D.Sc.,
Executive Director, DAN - Diver’s Alert Network

Reprinted with permission from Alert Diver, March, April 1992

I was recently watching a large multilane freeway and noted the majority of cars moving appropriately at 55 to 60 mph (80 - 100 kph). A number of cars however, could be seen recklessly speeding over this limit, weaving in and out of traffic lanes without signals, regardless of the safety of others or themselves.

All this was just to gain a little time advantage or for the thrill of high speed or to stroke their ego or for whatever facile reason. In so doing, the responsible drivers were placed in serious threat of accident or death by these indiscretions of the reckless. Similarly, every day the newspapers report too many young men and women who have been recklessly driving at excessive speed and who lost control of the car on an unexpectedly steep bend, came off the road, hit a tree and died.

A comparison can be made with recreational diving. The majority of divers today dive within their dive agency training, certification and advice. However, there is a minority for who this is not enough. They wish to scuba dive deeper and deeper beyond 130 feet (40 m) ignoring the nitrogen narcosis problem.

Like the drunk driver, they believe they can handle the intoxication. Others wish to substitute simple air with more complex professional diver gasses such as nitrox or helium-oxygen or nitrogen-helium-oxygen in order to gain longer bottom times and less narcosis while trying to diminish the new problems of special equipment, control procedures, gas analysis, oxygen toxicity, decompression stops in the water, etc., which this entails.this minority of divers may have a right to do as they wish, but they serve a dangerous example to the majority of recreational scuba divers who may feel they can easily emulate these potentially dangerous practices with inadequate training, equipment or control procedures.

Recreational diving today is quite safe when compared to the occurrence of injuries in other sports as shown below. It is to the benefit of all involved with sport diving that it remains so. The incidence of accidents in recreational diving is 0.04 percent, the same as bowling! Even so, DAN continues to do all it can to decrease the 100 or so fatalities and 500 to 600 accidents per year. Good training, obeying sensible diving rules and guide-lines, and elimination of reckless diving can materially help.

What kind of diving practices may be regarded as reckless? Let us consider just a few. You can probably think of many others. One example is comparable to learning to drive around town and a first encounter with the German autobahn, which has no speed limit! Divers need to adjust their diving to the environment. All diving is not the same.

As a newly trained open water scuba diver you should have been advised to dive no deeper than 60 feet (18 m) until you are more experienced. Yet it is not at all uncommon to find new divers going straight to a 130 foot (40 m) wall dive because that is the recognized limit of recreational diving. This is just like the reckless driver, driving beyond the speed comfortable for driving, and it sets up the potential for an accident.

The same can be said for being trained in a quarry and suddenly being exposed to an open ocean dive in currents or rough water or entry through a high surf. The diver should increase training and experience slowly so as to be able to control the dive rather than having the dive control him or her leading to a near miss accident or worse.

Another example is alcohol. We all know that drinking and driving do not mix, nor does diving. There is a natural social tendency for divers to enjoy a drink together.

However, as with driving, some individuals do not know when to stop, and they risk decompression illness or worse by mixing drinking and diving.

Why should they feel that if driving a car is not considered legal at over .08 milligrams per percent that the diving risk is acceptable.

The added dehydrating factor of alcohol use, even the night before, may be further unnecessary risk. For example, DAN data show that 182 divers who had diving accidents had consumed 585 alcoholic drinks! Most divers had one or two drinks, but 16 divers had more than seven drinks, ten had more than six drinks, and seven had more than five drinks. Even if most were the night before, is this how to keep fit for diving? Is this reckless or responsible?

Overhead environments including caves, wreck penetration and diving under the ice accounted for 16.5 percent of the 1990 diving related fatalities (91 total) including eight while cave diving, four while ice diving, two while penetrating a wreck and one while cavern diving.

Seven of the overhead environment fatalities had no special training. Thirteen (including the seven) failed to follow standard recommended procedures, six failed to maintain a continuous guideline to the surface, two used homemade reels and became entangled in them, two became entangled in their guideline that had become detached from its initial tie off, two exceeded the 130 foot (40 m) depth rule and one dived without a buddy. The remaining two were inexperienced. Most of these accidents may be said to have been caused by reckless diving. Just as 12 percent of the 91 fatalities were not eve certified!

Divers should act with responsibility and with consideration for their actions as it reflects upon all recreational diving. Be mindful of the need for self control, good training, following the rules and guidelines, and be continually aware of potential risks and how to avoid them. We have but one life - why the need to be so reckless with it?

Finally, recreational diving should be safe and fun. Reckless diving is not appropriate as it dis-proportionately increases the fun/risk balance toward increased risk. To try to exceed safety guidelines or the physiological, psychological and physical limits of our bodies in this unusual underwater environment is courting more than an improved ego, or induced high, and gives an unnecessary perception to some less well informed that diving is a dangerous sport. We know better. So in the philosophy of current safety programs be a responsible diver and driver too of course.

Sources - February 1993 copyright 1996 NAUI. All rights reserved.

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