PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
Every dive incident tells a story and offers an opportunity to learn. DAN Research’s Fatality and Injury Monitoring (FIM) program examines dive fatalities, injuries, incidents, and near misses to better understand when, how, and why things go wrong. By identifying patterns and contributing factors, FIM helps turn real-world dive experiences into knowledge that can make diving safer for everyone.
The program brings together two complementary efforts. Fatality surveillance collects and evaluates information about dive-related deaths, examining factors such as medical conditions, human behavior, environmental and operational conditions, equipment, and the sequence of events leading to an incident. The Diving Incident Reporting System (DIRS) allows divers to voluntarily share incidents, near misses, equipment problems, and other safety concerns. DIRS gives divers the option to anonymously share these experiences, allowing for events to be documented that might not otherwise be reported.
Together, these sources help DAN Research see beyond individual events to identify recurring patterns, emerging risks, and opportunities for prevention. Just as important, near misses can reveal vulnerabilities before they result in serious injury or loss of life.
DAN shares what it learns from FIM using various methods, including the Annual Diving Report, Alert Diver’s Incident Insight column, research publications, educational materials, and other safety resources.
Learning from actual incidents allows DAN to help divers make better-informed decisions, strengthen prevention efforts, and ultimately help more divers return safely from every dive.
© Alert Diver – Q4 2026