This unfortunate incident was sadly my fault and i blame it on complacency. As you can Imagine im not proud of this article and have left out names and locations but thought it import to tell the facts and maybe stop someone else who my suffer from complacency at times.
The incident took place at 11 am local time on Tuesday the 4th of October, 2005. I am the dive team leader and on most occasions i am the diving supervisor.
I had two divers, both new to public safety (police) diving, I was also in charge of operating the police vessel. The objective of this dive was to search for and recover a outboard engine propellor. It had been reported lost in 31 fsw approximately 100 yards off the shore line.
The weather at the time was windy, blowing about 25 knots out of the east. Because of our location i could not secure the vessel to a dock and i also didn't want to have to motor around for an hour while the search was conducted.
As the divers got dressed and prepared for the dive, one of them, the one who could have been injuired or in all honesty even killed errected a dive flag on the boat. When he errected the flag i immediately noticed how loud the flags where flapping in the wind and wondered if the noise would present a problem monitoring the vhf radio. I looked around and saw that there was very little boat traffic anywhere near my vacinity. Mistake one, I told the diver we didn't need the flag up because it was quiet and were well away from any boats, I couldn't see any that where closer than several miles.
Once the divers had prepared themselves they entered the water and began their search for this missing propellor,there search area had a surface maker which i was monitoring. The marker was a one gallon black plastic oil container.
i mived off about 100 feet and let out an anchor. I wanted to stay clear of the divers. i didn't want the anchor line to interfear with there search. I contacted the RCC Center and reported that i had 2 divers in the water and that they would be down for approximatly 1 hours, mistake number 2, the radio officer asked if I wished to place a radio broadcast warning the divers where conducting a diving operation, i told him i didn't think it was needed because of the lack of any type of boating and our closeness to the shore line.
50 minutes later i suddenly see a 45 foot high speed cat boat that is operated by a local tourest company heading directly for the location that the divers where presently involved in there search. The boats deck hand noticed the surface marker about 100 to 150 feet away and the captain then stopped the boat, the boat came to a full stop approximatly 50 feet from the diver marker. They proceeded forward at slow speed and approached the maker and just as luck would have it one the the divers surfaced directly in from of the boat. The boat was moving very slowly and the diver was being watched by the deck hand.
Thw diver who was not in danger at this point surfaced, facing my direction, he gave me a big OK, which i ignored due to the fact that i was now watching the actions of the boat and captain.
The diver up to this point has no idea that directly behind him was a 45 foot long cat boat. He turned around when the boat captain shouted to him and told him that he had almost run him over.
After collecting the divers i reported the incident to the RCC Center and received a call via my cell phone from the captain of the high speed craft. He informed me that he had seen the police boat at anchor and came over to my location to see if i was in need of assistance because in his words, he had never seen a police boat at anchor before. He also mentioned that he would have stayed clear of the area if he would have seen a dive flag (mistake 1) and he hadn't heard a broadcast for the RCC Center (mistake 2).
The diver, who was badly shaken approached me about the incident and asked how much danger he had actually been in, he told me he had really been frightened by what had happened. I explained what had happened and now the diver in question is of course wondering if he wants to continue with public safety diving.
I have been a public safety diver for 10 years and the dive team leader for about 2 years at this point and have never seen or been involved in an incident of this nature and admit i was the cause of this incident. The guilt i feel is slowly fading with the passing of time but i won't ever forget the time that my complacency could have cost someone his life.
I always prided myself on my compatence in leading these men and feel i have let them down totally. I question if im really the person who should be in a position of authority and trust and wonder if the men on the dive team can trust someone who almost got one them killed because of his lack seeing the big picture (safety).
Please let this be a lesson, don't ever let your guard down because it might come back with a vengence.
The incident took place at 11 am local time on Tuesday the 4th of October, 2005. I am the dive team leader and on most occasions i am the diving supervisor.
I had two divers, both new to public safety (police) diving, I was also in charge of operating the police vessel. The objective of this dive was to search for and recover a outboard engine propellor. It had been reported lost in 31 fsw approximately 100 yards off the shore line.
The weather at the time was windy, blowing about 25 knots out of the east. Because of our location i could not secure the vessel to a dock and i also didn't want to have to motor around for an hour while the search was conducted.
As the divers got dressed and prepared for the dive, one of them, the one who could have been injuired or in all honesty even killed errected a dive flag on the boat. When he errected the flag i immediately noticed how loud the flags where flapping in the wind and wondered if the noise would present a problem monitoring the vhf radio. I looked around and saw that there was very little boat traffic anywhere near my vacinity. Mistake one, I told the diver we didn't need the flag up because it was quiet and were well away from any boats, I couldn't see any that where closer than several miles.
Once the divers had prepared themselves they entered the water and began their search for this missing propellor,there search area had a surface maker which i was monitoring. The marker was a one gallon black plastic oil container.
i mived off about 100 feet and let out an anchor. I wanted to stay clear of the divers. i didn't want the anchor line to interfear with there search. I contacted the RCC Center and reported that i had 2 divers in the water and that they would be down for approximatly 1 hours, mistake number 2, the radio officer asked if I wished to place a radio broadcast warning the divers where conducting a diving operation, i told him i didn't think it was needed because of the lack of any type of boating and our closeness to the shore line.
50 minutes later i suddenly see a 45 foot high speed cat boat that is operated by a local tourest company heading directly for the location that the divers where presently involved in there search. The boats deck hand noticed the surface marker about 100 to 150 feet away and the captain then stopped the boat, the boat came to a full stop approximatly 50 feet from the diver marker. They proceeded forward at slow speed and approached the maker and just as luck would have it one the the divers surfaced directly in from of the boat. The boat was moving very slowly and the diver was being watched by the deck hand.
Thw diver who was not in danger at this point surfaced, facing my direction, he gave me a big OK, which i ignored due to the fact that i was now watching the actions of the boat and captain.
The diver up to this point has no idea that directly behind him was a 45 foot long cat boat. He turned around when the boat captain shouted to him and told him that he had almost run him over.
After collecting the divers i reported the incident to the RCC Center and received a call via my cell phone from the captain of the high speed craft. He informed me that he had seen the police boat at anchor and came over to my location to see if i was in need of assistance because in his words, he had never seen a police boat at anchor before. He also mentioned that he would have stayed clear of the area if he would have seen a dive flag (mistake 1) and he hadn't heard a broadcast for the RCC Center (mistake 2).
The diver, who was badly shaken approached me about the incident and asked how much danger he had actually been in, he told me he had really been frightened by what had happened. I explained what had happened and now the diver in question is of course wondering if he wants to continue with public safety diving.
I have been a public safety diver for 10 years and the dive team leader for about 2 years at this point and have never seen or been involved in an incident of this nature and admit i was the cause of this incident. The guilt i feel is slowly fading with the passing of time but i won't ever forget the time that my complacency could have cost someone his life.
I always prided myself on my compatence in leading these men and feel i have let them down totally. I question if im really the person who should be in a position of authority and trust and wonder if the men on the dive team can trust someone who almost got one them killed because of his lack seeing the big picture (safety).
Please let this be a lesson, don't ever let your guard down because it might come back with a vengence.
