What are the three most common ways to die from scuba diving?

Answer 1

There are a number of ways of dying as a result of Scuba diving but the truth is it has very few deaths considering there is such a high potential for all manner of accidents and how many people take part in the sport each year. If you compared it to something like recreational motorcycle riding, it is very safe indeed. Divers tend to get training, which is a very good thing because they usually learn what is safe and what isn't.

As a result of such low mortality, the statistics are not very significant due to the low numbers. This year 'death by shark attack' has made the list in Australia even though it is extremely rare for a diver to have been killed in such a way. There are probably far fewer deaths as a result of drowning than you might expect too. It is more likely that people will dive too deep and become narcotised, become lost in no-clear surface dives or suffer catastrophic DCS. If the body is not recovered, or even if it has, it can be hard to establish the reason for death. Having said that more injuries are due to boats... getting in and out, being hit by them on the surface etc than serious decompression accidents. I am sure someone has done research on deaths in diving but the main point is that it is a pretty safe sport for trained participants. With good training and safe practices we are all trying to keep it to the realms of 'highly unlikely'