By DIVE Staff
The British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) Annual Diving Incident Report for 2022 has been published, with a total of 182 incidents and six fatalities recorded throughout the UK – the lowest number of UK scuba diving fatalities in a normal year since 1977. A further 66 incidents were reported from overseas.
By way of comparison, the 2021 Diving Incident Report recorded a total of 235 incidents with 16 fatalities for the year, with the last pre-covid report of 2019 recording 354 incidents and 13 fatalities.
As the National Governing Body for UK scuba diving, BSAC has been compiling annual reports on diving incidents in the UK since 1965. The data are gathered from a variety of sources – from individual members of the public via the BSAC incident reporting system, and annual reports from institutions such as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), MOD Superintendent of Defence Diving, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the Water Incident Database (WAID).
Data from other training agencies including PADI, RAID and IANTD also contribute to the report, and BSAC uses a media searching service to gather reports of diving-related incidents in the press.
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The most reported category of incident in 2022 was illness and injury, although the report states that this may also include cases of decompression illness (DCI) where insufficient information was provided to categorically mark the incident as such.
Of those injuries and illnesses, BSAC says Immersion Pulmonary Oedema (IPO) – potentially the single biggest killer of scuba divers – ‘continues to be an identifiable concern’. Although no cases have been positively confirmed during 2022, nine incidents were reported in which possible symptoms of IPO – including breathing difficulties without strenuous activity, confusion, or indicating out-of-air with a plentiful supply – were present.
Six fatalities were reported in 2022, with the average age of the deceased divers being 55.5 years of age; compared to 54.9 years of age in 2021 and 58.2 in 2019. Although the exact cause of death is not reported in all cases, BSAC says that there is enough information to indicate that medical causes were ‘a noteworthy factor’ in four of the six incidents.
While the number of reported scuba diving fatalities in 2022 is the lowest on record for 45 years, BSAC cautions that the ‘stochastic nature’ of fatal incidents in any given year does not necessarily signify a positive trend in the reduction of fatal incidents.
What does appear to be positive news is the absence of an early season spike in incidents, which BSAC credits to divers ‘exercising appropriate preparation’ after a period out of the water. However, BSAC also warns that some incidents could have been avoided had divers followed basic safe diving practices.
The full report is available as a free download from the BSAC website.
Divers from all agencies, whether recreational or technical, beginner or professional, can submit incident reports to the database, which over the long term contributes – and has contributed – to the development of scuba diving safety best practices. To report an incident and help improve diving safety, use the online report form at bsac.com/reportanincident
