three divers rescued in the St Lawrence

[DA Aquamaster]

A couple posts mention "cold" water. This time of year, it's not "cold" since it's all run off from shallow water in the lake and is pretty comfy by cold water diving standards.

 

[gitterdun]

It sounds like whatever happened must have happened very early in the dive. Anything more than a few minutes on this wreck and you would be into more than "minimal" deco... That's probably a blessing considering the location.

From what I understand, it had been around an hour from splash-in.

Chris and Blair... We are saying prayers for you, and everyone else involved. I know you did everything you could. Gold bless.

 

[gitterdun]

A couple posts mention "cold" water. This time of year, it's not "cold" since it's all run off from shallow water in the lake and is pretty comfy by cold water diving standards.

The River is 73F right now.

 

[Michael_Lambert]

Stoo, When i said Minimal deco, i was meaning he really pushed his tables coming out..

 

[melanie.]

Heard about this today as we were gearing up for our second dive. Pretty sombering moment. I mean it is pretty sad but it brought it home again how lax we all get when doing gear checks, dive planning, communicating with captain etc. Obviously I have no idea what happened here, and sounds like something medical almost, but I know I definately took a few extra moments today to dive safe.

 

[gypsyjim]

This story is so sad, and hits home a bit harder than most, as I was just diving out of Rock Port, Ontario with my son and daughter this last weekend. The wreck itself is well beyond my skill level, but still, too close to home.

Best wishes, and condolences to those involved, and friends and family.

Now, my observation:
I keep hearing, or rather reading people's posts saying how there have been a lot more dive accidents/fatalities recently.

Is this really true, or have we simply reached a point with internet communication where we learn of these accidents nearly instantly, no matter where in the world they have occurred (or even at times, are occurring!)? In the past it took time for any besides those directly involved (family members, buddies, friends) to hear of an accident. Newspaper stories or magazines articles, etc were how we often learned of an accident and or fatality, and those took a lot more time to reach most divers.

Today, we are used to signing on to SB or other forum almost every Monday, to read of at least one accident or near miss from the preceding weekend. Within hours, and before any real facts can possibly be known, the incident is being dissected, (mis?)-analyzed, and debated from the far corners of the dive world. Every one of these discussions seems to boost the impression that there are currently a lot more of these incidents occurring than in the even recent past.

I would like to learn the true historical statistics of accident and fatality rates, as a percentage of the diving population today, and over the last 10 years or so. I do think instant communication is at least partially why some think there may have been an increase in these rates recently.

 

[gypsyjim]

Double post, sorry. Real problems with our internet here at work today.

If what I suggest above is true, there is possibly one upside to this discussion: a lot more divers have the chance to learn from such incidents very quickly, and hopefully as a sport we are using this communication tool to educate ourselves more effectively?

 

[DandyDon]

It seems that the deceased diver lost consciousness. I am guessing that while the other two ascended with him, one chose to risk a hit to bring him up quickly and the other chose to do a safe final ascent so as to be healthy enough to assist of the rapid ascent rescuer took a hit. I certainly don't know that this was communicated below, but a good plan nonetheless...

Komoka man risks life trying to save other diver | London | News | London Free Press

A Komoka man risked his life trying to save a fellow scuba diver who lost consciousness deep in the St. Lawrence River.

Blair Mott, 42, and two other divers, Christopher Monk of Aurora and Michael Roberts of Kingston, were exploring a sunken ship on the U.S. side of the river when disaster struck.

Halfway into the two-hour dive, Roberts got into trouble 40 metres below the surface, said a friend of Mott, who didn’t want to be identified.

Mott and Monk started to take an unconscious Roberts to the surface, but because of the depth, they couldn’t ascend rapidly.

When Roberts started to go into convulsions, the two men knew they were running out of time.

Still 12 metres from the surface, Mott made the dangerous decision to take his friend up the rest of the way without taking time to decompress, said the friend.

Monk stayed back to decompress.

The U.S. Coast Guard took Roberts, a 39-year-old Kingston man, to River Hospital in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., where he was pronounced dead.

Mott and Monk were also taken to hospital for observation.

State police said the three men were exploring the wreckage of the Roy A. Jodrey, a 230-metre-long steel freighter that sank in 1972 after hitting a sandbar near Alexandria Bay.

The bow of the wreck is in 50 metres of water and the stern is down about 80 metres.

Drivers must have technical diving certification to go below 40 metres, said Terry Kovacevic of London Scuba Centre.

“I do know that Blair is a qualified and certified diver with technical experience,” Kovacevic said.

Coast guard officials are investigating.

“We’re also going to have the (diving) gear checked,” said New York State Police Investigator Dan Tordy.

 

[scubadiver888]

I keep hearing, or rather reading people's posts saying how there have been a lot more dive accidents/fatalities recently.

Is this really true, or have we simply reached a point with internet communication where we learn of these accidents nearly instantly, no matter where in the world they have occurred (or even at times, are occurring!)? In the past it took time for any besides those directly involved (family members, buddies, friends) to hear of an accident. Newspaper stories or magazines articles, etc were how we often learned of an accident and or fatality, and those took a lot more time to reach most divers.

Today, we are used to signing on to SB or other forum almost every Monday, to read of at least one accident or near miss from the preceding weekend. Within hours, and before any real facts can possibly be known, the incident is being dissected, (mis?)-analyzed, and debated from the far corners of the dive world. Every one of these discussions seems to boost the impression that there are currently a lot more of these incidents occurring than in the even recent past.

I would like to learn the true historical statistics of accident and fatality rates, as a percentage of the diving population today, and over the last 10 years or so. I do think instant communication is at least partially why some think there may have been an increase in these rates recently.

The Ontario Underwater Council publishes incident reports going back around 20 years.

Year: fatalities
2011: 4
2010: 1
2009: 0
2008: 3
2007: 4
2006: 4
2005: 4
2004: 4

It seems that 2009 and 2010 were actually good years. Looking at the incident reports some of the past deaths were people totally ignoring proper dive training (possible not even certified). This year the deaths have all been certified divers and in most cases active members of the community.

Some guy gets some scuba gear and tries to retrieve his pickup truck from the bottom of a river isn't going to hit home with people who frequent ScubaBoard. A certified diver who has been diving with people who frequent ScubaBoard will stand out a lot more. I think this year, there aren't an unusually high number of fatalities but there are more people we we know this year than in the past.

 

[ajtoady]

The Watertown Times today published that the diver died of a heart attack according to the coroner. Again condolences to the family and friends.