Diving Incidents: What We Can Learn

Occupational diving incidents are a serious subject. A near miss may leave no one injured, while another event may change a life or end one. Both deserve attention because both can reveal a hazard that needs to be understood before the next dive takes place.

This page brings together reports of incidents and fatalities involving diving in Canada. As the collection grows, readers will be able to look beyond individual events and consider the conditions and decisions that appear across many reports. The purpose is to learn from them, not to assign blame, but to find out why.

Recreational and occupational diving share an underwater environment, but a workplace dive adds a task, a schedule, equipment and people who may be working around the diver. The site owner or company hiring the divers may know its facility well, while the diving contractor knows the demands of working underwater. Safe planning depends on bringing that knowledge together.

Was the task clearly defined? Were current, visibility, entanglement, machinery and access to the surface considered? Was the diving method suitable for the work? Did the team have the information, experience, equipment and support needed to respond if conditions changed? These questions matter not only to the diving contractor, but also the organizations that hire them.

ODRM is sharing these reports to help project managers and site owners make better decisions before work begins. Each report is an opportunity to ask what could have been identified earlier, what might have changed the outcome, and how that lesson can be put to use on the next job.