Diver dead after accident in Lake Ontario near Oakville

[rmaddog]

The diver in question is my cousin. This was their second dive of the day and everything was fine. Contrary to reports. He was found on the bottom unresponsive, and pulled up from there. No one knows right now what went wrong but obviously something did. He was more than experienced to handle these dives and his gear was more than OK so speculation needs to stop and wait for the results of the police investigation. I am tired of reading peoples opinions about what the news has said, the news has been 100% wrong so far. I am at a loss myself for what went wrong, but until all info is available opinions only lead to more misinformation, which doesn't help anyone. I will post again when we find out more info.

 

[The Chairman]

---

---

A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Inflammatory statements, and those responding to them have been deleted.

This is tragic enough without trying to use it to make digs at other shops.

Continued discussion along that vein or about the moderation of this thread will result in at least a thread ban.

If you want to question this action, please use PMs or take it up in site support.

---

 

[rmaddog]

Please don't stop this thread as I think everyone can learn from it, but the information needs to be correct. Just wait for the proper info and then make speculations the new is not a good source of info.

 

[Garth]

Unfortunately news is first information. Then a long time goes by and we may get a vague police report. Hope this is not the case.

 

[Ayisha]

In Ontario, the OUC (Ontario Underwater Council) will make a preliminary report on the known facts within 72 hours, so we can expect some info published by tomorrow. They will then update the report as information is added.

Ontario Underwater Council

 

[bleeb]

The diver in question is my cousin. This was their second dive of the day and everything was fine. Contrary to reports. He was found on the bottom unresponsive, and pulled up from there. No one knows right now what went wrong but obviously something did. He was more than experienced to handle these dives and his gear was more than OK so speculation needs to stop and wait for the results of the police investigation.

Thank you for the information you've been able to provide. Although this is the Accidents and Incidents part of ScubaBoard and condolences are against the rules in this section, I'm going to offer them anyway, to you and all your family.

I'm guessing that you've come reading here partly because you too want answers and understanding as to what happened. My apologies if that isn't the case. However, if it is, and since you appear to be relatively new to ScubaBoard, I'll offer a strongly recommended word of advice that we frequently offer to all family members who come here hoping for answers: Please don't keep reading this thread.

If you choose to, most of us will more than welcome and appreciate any information or insights you may be able to provide. But you've already gotten a flavour of how people here can often be undiplomatic, or intellectually less than rigorous in differentiating between facts, hypotheses, and valid points of discussions that may have been brought up by this tragedy but that actually have nothing to do with what happened. (Never mind what help 'the media' can be.)

Equally important, this is an accident investigation forum, and accident investigations are generally quite brutal. Many possibility go under the microscope, and since the laudable goal is to try to prevent future accidents, just about everything that could have gone wrong is analysed, whether or not it actually happened. Unfortunately, all this is often quite hard on anyone with a major emotional involvement. More than one discussion of 'what ifs' has unfortunately had to have been stopped because of this, even though there may have been the possibility of saving someone some grief in the future. It's not a situation anyone likes. So please, consider not causing yourself more pain by getting too involved in any such discussions.

Outside of ScubaBoard and the Internet, in the coming days you or other family members will probably continue to be looking for answers. A somewhat related piece of advice people here frequently offer is not to have too high hopes of getting useful information from any investigation by authorities such as police or the coroner. You're a diver, so at least you have some idea what's involved in diving in terms of knowledge and skills. Globally, there are only a few lucky jurisdictions with the knowledge, resources and interest to analyse diving accidents. The vast majority of the time, you get reports like "death by drowning" or "cardiac arrest", which isn't very satisfactory either to family and friends of the deceased, or to the community of divers concerned for the loss of one of their own. (Personally, I wonder whether either of those two causes should henceforth be regarded as professionally inadequate on the part of coroners for any diving fatality.) For your family's sake, if you don't get satisfactory answers, please realise you may have to push. And if you want or need help from a very knowledgeable pool of divers to help you interpret and figure things out, they're here. Even if they tend to have more than a few conversational rough sides you'd have to deal with.

 

[AcePilot]

Is thread about this accident on the Ontario Diving closed or deleted?
Can anyone open it?
There was some information from DiveAdict guys...

 

[Ayisha]

Yes, the thread is still going and open. You have to register to view it and it is a no alias, no troll board. Once you've successfully registered, it should be no problem.

 

[Garth]

Well said Bleeb. Your post is one of the best I've ever read in it's ability to say what all of us here reading this thread wish to have said.

 

[bsee65]

Well said Bleeb. Your post is one of the best I've ever read in it's ability to say what all of us here reading this thread wish to have said.

Truth. Some Mod ought to grab that one and make it a sticky for family members and other interested parties. Give it a little tweak to make it universal and keep it ready for future use / reference.