Cave diver drowns - Jackson Blue Springs, Florida

[grantctobin]

They who?

His teammate would probably be a good start?

(With full awareness that the community isn’t always the kindest with these things)

 

[Six Feet Under]

They who?

"Whoever" is responsible for accident analysis nowadays. The same "they" we've all been complaining about not releasing reports or analysis of cave diving accidents for literal years, now.

Or, someone random could be a hero and just start FOIA'ing the investigative reports from the appropriate law enforcement agencies involved in accidents/recoveries. I'm kind of surprised that hasn't happened yet, honestly.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Or, someone random could be a hero and just start FOIA'ing the investigative reports from the appropriate law enforcement agencies involved in accidents/recoveries. I'm kind of surprised that hasn't happened yet, honestly.

A couple of reasons, the primary reason as it will likely make you a pariah in at least some segments of the cave community. Unless you can effectively launder it through a third party. The lesser reason is that it costs money and time because these agencies are small without a published process.

 

[boulderjohn]

There was a recent movement to have the NSS-CDs do these investigations and reports. The first attempts were encouraging. I don't know what happened after that.

I used to write reports for NSS. I can assure you there are a lot of problems doing it. It is not easy to produce a truly accurate report in many cases, because many people do not want to report all of what they know. There are many reasons for this. I was in some cases blatantly lied to, but what could I do about that? Shockingly enough, even a purely objective report can be misleading if you have to leave out some contentious information because you cannot be sure of it. The report you write may end up giving an impression that is exactly the opposite of what you believe, but you really can't write what you believe because it isn't objective.

 

[billgraham]

I personally don't feel that the dive partner owes anything to anyone, and really there ought to be more concern for that person. If you FOIA the police report, you'll likely find that the victim died of an MCI brought on by drowning, which won't illuminate much.

 

[Biotech Diver]

Well based on these recent comments from muiltiple people, I see no further value in any of these accidents and incidents threads because we never know any details at all of what happened. They are only worth reading for curiosity's sake.

If you can't learn from them because everyone says they probably died of a cardiac event, then what's the point? I guess the only thing you can say is make sure your heart is in good shaped because whether you're using a rebreather and diving in a cave or you're on open circuit and diving a popular wreck, that's the best thing you can do to lower your chances of dying while scuba diving.

 

[billgraham]

Like you said, it's a curiosity thing. And while most may not freely admit to it, they're rather entertaining, in a morbid sort of way.

A lot of times, the survivors and people involved in the recovery never dive again. It's easy to sit behind a keyboard and hypothesize but these events are tragic close up.

 

[DanBMW]

Occasionally some solid information follows an incident, but for the most part, they simply alert you that it can be a dangerous sport. Rules and training are for a reason and many were written in blood.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Repeating the same causes of deaths in cave diving may seem redundant, and it did to me for a long time.
However, I now think that it cannot hurt for people to be reminded of the things that can kill us and also providing examples of how it did kill someone.

 

[Johnoly]

A lot of times, the survivors and people involved in the recovery never dive again.

That's very accurate.

I've been involved with 5 diver deaths. In those atleast 3 other participants have given up their diving.
They were all bi-weekly intensive divers, mostly photogs. In talks they said:

* They couldn't 100% concentrate underwater
* Making small, tiny mistakes, but frustrated U/W at them
* That stress made it no longer enjoyable to dive with a plan
* Now do 1-2 vacation type dives per year just to use their gear
* All have sold their personal tanks & just rent them.(1st sign of quitting)
* Tell others they are too busy to dive, but still actively participate in forums.

It's a very hard hit to your dive confidence to bring a dead diver up from the sand and watch them put in an ambulance no longer breathing. It's something you will never forget and will absolutely make you give up diving. But if you keep reading this forum and understand the mistakes made, you will go back to your own gear and make immediate changes to it and procedures. You'll also quickly and actively discuss procedure changes with your dive mates to test the procedures. This actively builds dive confidence underwater. And that keeps you diving bi-weekly.