In 2000, the US Department of Transportation estimates fatality rates at 22 automobile related deaths /100,000 licensed drivers or 2.2/10,000.  However, the DOT table also shows that driver deaths is ~  26,000/191M licensed drivers or 1.36 driver deaths /10,000 licensed drivers.

DAN estimates diving fatalities at  ~ 1.1 DAN member diving deaths /10,000 DAN members. 

If we assume and compare:

Then, there is a similar fatality rate for US auto licensees and DAN members, as they are measured in a comparable way.

Another study viewed safety through another index, which is deaths per number of dives.

2002/06/29 - Dangers of scuba diving in B.C.

Brian Morton
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, June 29, 2002

About two out of every 100,000 recreational scuba divers are killed in diving accidents in B.C., according to a groundbreaking study by the Underwater Council of B.C. "It's impossible to say whether [the death rate] is low or high, because this is the first study of its kind," UCBC president Tom Beasley said Friday. "But what's important is the fact that we established a methodology for doing this not only for here but for elsewhere in the world. "This study is the first concrete attempt by any jurisdiction in the world to capture the level of diving activity and, as a result, measure the relative risk of sport diving. We hope that the study will be copied by other jurisdictions around the world, giving comparative measures of diving risk in different regions and underwater conditions. It's amazing to me that the dive industry has not undertaken a similar analysis to date." Called the Abacus Project, the study counted recreational air fills as a measure of diving activity in B.C. between October 1999 and November 2000.

 The project was started as a result of a 1997 inquest into a triple scuba fatality in West Vancouver. The coroner's jury recommended that UCBC review and monitor diving practices in B.C. and set up a mechanism for collecting statistical information on dives. According to the report, there were three fatalities in 146,291 fills, or 2.05 deaths per 100,000 dives, in the study period. As well, there were 14 incidences of decompression illness, which includes decompression sickness [commonly referred to as the bends] and lung over-expansion injuries [commonly referred to as arterial gas embolism or air embolism], in the 146,291 dives, or 9.57 per 100,000 dives. The project counted the number of scuba tanks that were filled for use in recreational scuba diving. The number was used as an estimate of diving activity. "Three deaths are too many for me," added Beasley. "But I think this establishes that it [diving] is not as high risk as outsiders may presume. What is also important for me is the fact that I had no idea there are a minimum of 10,000 dives in B.C. per month." Dan Orr of Divers Alert Network also praised the study. "The Abacus Project has established a baseline for estimating the risk for recreational diving in British Columbia. This is the first time a reliable method has been used to track recreational diving activity in a specific geographic area over an extended time period." The study was presented Friday to the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society's Annual Scientific Conference in San Diego, California. Beasley said the study is not perfect, because 35 per cent of the provincial fill stations didn't participate. "There is no valid way to estimate how many fills were done by the stations that did not report," noted the report. As well, only incidents that ended in a fatality or hyperbaric chamber treatment were included. "Injuries that went untreated or were treated without use of a chamber were not included." The report notes that it would be beneficial if similar studies were conducted in places like the Cayman Islands or Australia's Great Barrier Reef, so that questions surrounding the risk associated with warm water versus cold water diving could be answered.