Dutch Springs Incident

[vladimir]

and with what dutch charges to get in and all the staff that is there why dont they have 2 lookouts at each spot and a boat at each so that if something like this were to happen that one of the lookouts can get in the boat and help and the other stay and call things in ?

Where do you think Dutch Springs' responsibility ends? Why stop at lookouts? Why not a divemaster for every diver? What responsibility does the individual diver have for his own safety?

 

[paddler3d]

Is there an official accident report yet about the incident?

There are a lot of pieces in the previous posts, but there also seems to be a lot of missing pieces.

 

[openmindOW]

Is there an official accident report yet about the incident?

It would be good to know if someone with knowledge of the incident could provide a Lessons Learned. Obviously, speculation is to be avoided, but perhaps there is a way that someone can post a brief Lessons Learned memo in a sensitive, dipolmatic manner.

For example, if the diver did not remove her weight system, that would be helpful to know.

 

[letterboy]

I was the diver who started in water cpr and a medical professional for 25 years. I want to thank all who helped that day,especially the diver in the boat with Lee. sometimes you do everything right and still lose. Let us learn from this and move forward. I have been troubled by this all week,and now must let it go. I just hope it makes us better teachers and safer divers. As for the family, I am sorry but we tried our best.

I for one thank you for your efforts. Without your assistance she would have had zero chance. You gave the family a chance to say good bye.

Can you shed some light on any if the questions posed above?

Posted via Mobile Device

 

[alohagal]

"Divers were the first to respond, although there was a delay because the first group the husband approached did not speak English and didn't understand enough to respond. A different group of divers followed up and then the DS crew in the boat"

Yeah. Like I need to read shakespeare's pieces in original to know whats goin on.

The first person that reached that couple was my bud, though he left all gear but fins on the platform to get there asap. When he got there woman was 4 feet below the surface and her buddy was holding her octopus with the rest of his strenght just to prevent her from going down. We dumped her equipment, but woman was already unconscious and did not respond to cpr performed by another diver that was around. In a short time DS staff boat was there and took woman aboard where my buddy continued improvised cpr.

"member of our group who was diving near the pump house during/after the incident and happened across the woman's gear on the bottom".

Do I know U?

BCD had a leak in a place where inflator hose was attached to the jacket thus i had to use my own wing to lift stuff from the bottom.

Prolly woman's inflator failed during dive and she tried to ascent swimming up with her buddy, however her gear was to heavy and in a confusion they struggled to stay on the surface instead of dropping all weights. At some point she got to tired.

I heard she is injured but alive. Hope she"ll be fine soon.

I had an incident of a leaking hose on my BCD. It leaked where the Air II connects to the BCD. I did not know it for quite a while (several dive trips). Never put a lot of air in my BCD in OW dives. My last trip to Cozumel I finally realized that a washer was missing from the inside of the connection to the BCD. I was on a 4 week trip and had to have various dive shops rig up a washer for me. None of them fit exactly and it became an issue to finally get something in that worked when I was going to dive cenotes.

I chalk it up to my dive shop back home in Colorado. They always screw something up everytime I have it serviced. WASHER was completely MISSING! BCD unable to hold air for any length of time. I chose to dive a week with it in that condition since no one had a washer to fit. I don't recommend it! But at least I was AWARE of the leak at that point. Otherwise...it is hard to keep your mouth just above the water line at surface. If unaware...would be easy to panic, take in water and then sink.

Mary

 

[jtpwils]

I chalk it up to my dive shop back home in Colorado. They always screw something up everytime I have it serviced. WASHER was completely MISSING! BCD unable to hold air for any length of time.
Mary

Everytime? Heck if it were twice or maybe even once, even if that were then only dive shop in CO, I'd start shipping my gear to get serviced or learn to "pack my own chute" so to speak. Even if you want to risk your life by bringing stuff there, I'm sure they are others that feel differently - hell I do and I don't even know you.

 

[alohagal]

Everytime? Heck if it were twice or maybe even once, even if that were then only dive shop in CO, I'd start shipping my gear to get serviced or learn to "pack my own chute" so to speak. Even if you want to risk your life by bringing stuff there, I'm sure they are others that feel differently - hell I do and I don't even know you.

No, you are absolutely right. Number one: Dive Rites are not really sold in Colorado. They used to send it out to Denver for service, but recently said...now we certified to work on your gear. (yeah, right) And the shop was recently bought out by a very young man. I am 'afraid' of their servicing abilities.
I did a gear check out...but in a shallow pool at the dive shop...water barely goes over your head in the deep end.

I will have to figure out a better system for sure! Divers and shop owners here aren't getting in the water on a regular basis. Not even Quarry's or lakes to speak of around these parts.


To make this applicable to the topic at hand: If the diver had a leak and could not inflate her BC...but did not realize it...I could see where the incident could have occurred. Dropping weights is not always the first thing a person thinks to do. Getting Air into BC at the top is. Take in a few gulps of water, on top, panic and start feeling overwhelmed and the chain of events to drowning begin to occur.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

I was the diver who started in water cpr and a medical professional for 25 years. I want to thank all who helped that day,especially the diver in the boat with Lee. sometimes you do everything right and still lose. Let us learn from this and move forward. I have been troubled by this all week,and now must let it go. I just hope it makes us better teachers and safer divers. As for the family, I am sorry but we tried our best.

Hang in there man. I have worn your shoes. You will worry at this more before you can let it go. Good job, stepping up. I am sorry it did not have the ending we all wanted. My sympathies to all.

 

[njhunter167]

Plenty

 

[njhunter167]

Plenty

does anyone know you?

Sad day for local diving.

Lets hope something can be learned from this and her death is used to teach OW better, more like JimLap teaches.