AVALANCHE AIRBAG STATISTICS

ICAR (International Commission of Alpine Rescue) has called an avalanche airbag "the device of choice". The following information is provided from Time is Life DVD, edited and approved by the International Commission of Alpine Rescue. ICAR – MEDCOM, CISA-IKAR Avalanche Commission. SWISS Stats. 2005

Examined 2000 Avalanche incidents and found the following:

Overall 22% mortality rate.
 Only 4.4% of people who were not buried, or only partially buried died!
 51.3% chance of death for people who were completely buried.
 Likely that partial burials go unreported lowering the 4.4%.

Now for the Airbag statistics:
1991-2004:  77 reports of airbag inflation.
           76 Survived, 1 Died
           10 completely buried but airbags were visible on the surface.
 
The same avalanches caught  25 people who were not wearing airbags. Of these 12 were completely buried, 9 were found dead.

Airbags lowered the probability of a complete burial from 47.1% to 13% and the mortality rate 35.3% to 1.3%!

ICAR conclusion : Statistical evidence for airbags is good to very good. “It is the device of choice”.

Point of Interest: Same study revealed transceivers reduced the median burial time 170-20 minutes, but the mortality rate only 79% to 50%!

Avalanche airbags are the only way to help reduce the chance of being buried and greatly increase an avalanche victims chance of survival.