Feb 19 2017 Cozumel diving fatality

[dmaziuk]

I've heard on a typical day there could be 2000 to 3000 divers in the water at Coz (this coming from the safety director on the island a couple years back. He was our dive guide and we got into a discussion about dive safety after a diver was reported missing that day.) Extrapolate that to a year, and give each diver two dives per day, and there could be more like 1.5 million dives a year there.

If one dive in 200,000 ends badly, then 7 or 8 a year in Coz is on par with the average.

Brief google search won't turn up usable stats on Waikiki, one figure I saw was 5.7 drownings per 1 million visitors. And that's just bathing on Waikiki.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Brief google search won't turn up usable stats on Waikiki, one figure I saw was 5.7 drownings per 1 million visitors. And that's just bathing on Waikiki.

Visitors to the island, or visitors to the ocean?

 

[halocline]

I've heard on a typical day there could be 2000 to 3000 divers in the water at Coz (this coming from the safety director on the island a couple years back. He was our dive guide and we got into a discussion about dive safety after a diver was reported missing that day.) Extrapolate that to a year, and give each diver two dives per day, and there could be more like 1.5 million dives a year there.

I'd be very surprised if it's actually that high but it could be. Wow. A few deaths out of a million dives? I would not even begin to call that 'dangerous'.

 

[Christi]

I've heard on a typical day there could be 2000 to 3000 divers in the water at Coz (this coming from the safety director on the island a couple years back. He was our dive guide and we got into a discussion about dive safety after a diver was reported missing that day.) Extrapolate that to a year, and give each diver two dives per day, and there could be more like 1.5 million dives a year there.

If one dive in 200,000 ends badly, then 7 or 8 a year in Coz is on par with the average.

Really, the "safety Director of the island" was your dive guide? I've been here 16 years and had a dive shop for 15 and I've never heard of a "Safety Director" here other than someone in the police force, and he certainly wouldn't be moonlighting as a dive guide. Your numbers are very high - we do NOT by any stretch have 7 - 8 dive fatalities a year, unless you're including divers renting mopeds on their off time. Sounds like you were fed some hot air.

 

[Bob DBF]

Ok, thanks. Those are reasonably safe numbers I think, but nowhere close to bowling or golf, boring as those are to me - but when people die on those, the sport had little to do with it.

Their sport of golf or bowling gave enough exercise to trigger a heart attack. Diving perhaps be exempted from counting medical fatalities, since the sport had little to do with it.

The "statistic" they give does not have to be accurate as long as it provides them with a basis for good odds when writing an insurance policy. Nothing worse than having to pay out more than you collect in premiums.


Bob

 

[Ravenware]

I was just contacted by a member of the dive group who does not wish to participate openly in this thread. This is what I learned.

1. The diver agreed before the dive to use the inflator manually.
2. The diver did not appear to have a problem with that during the dive.
3. When the diver decided to go to the surface, she did not seem to be in distress. The diver who contacted me did not see her signal prior to the ascent, but the assumption was that she had reached the 700 PSI, the pressure at which the first low on air diver was supposed to ascend according to the pre-dive briefing.
4. The DM sent up a DSMB, showed her how to work the reel, and she ascended alone.
5. She did not appear to be in distress during that ascent, which started from a relatively shallow depth.
6. The person who contacted me did not watch her the whole time, but believes she did not take enough time on ascent to do a full safety stop.
7. The person who contacted me saw her reach the surface safely, and she did not appear to be having any trouble there.

I was also contacted by someone else who had information he was not at liberty to disclose. Nothing in that contact disagrees with what I just wrote.

From what I have been told and from what I read on this thread, the inflator hose had nothing to do with this accident. IMO, continuing to discuss it just gets in the way of a discussion on what really happened.

Again, the translated article that was posted in this thread near the beginning indicated she had a heart attack or stroke. Which would make sense, if it occurred while she was the surface. When we found her, she did not have her reg in her mouth and she had a half tank of air.

 

[Ravenware]

I just read through this entire thread.

Is there a link to any news articles or press releases about the incident? I googled but didn't find any.

Does Scubaboard prohibit mentioning the dive operator?

There was a translated news article in the early part of the thread, maybe it has been removed? I will try to find it again.

 

[Ravenware]

I just read through this entire thread.

Is there a link to any news articles or press releases about the incident? I googled but didn't find any.

Does Scubaboard prohibit mentioning the dive operator?

Page 2, a post from Lionfish Eater has a translated (badly) article that looks like a news paper published it.

 

[MMM]

Again, the translated article that was posted in this thread near the beginning indicated she had a heart attack or stroke. Which would make sense, if it occurred while she was the surface. When we found her, she did not have her reg in her mouth and she had a half tank of air.

I don't know how anyone could have know that she suffered a heart attack or a stroke without an autopsy having been performed and access to that information....especially since no one was at the surface with her to observe her and/or talk to her about what she was experiencing. The local newspapers here are not above making stuff up. Given the absence of observable gross external injuries, about all you can rule out is that she wasn't attacked by a shark or chewed up by propellers.

 

[Dan]

I don't know how anyone could have know that she suffered a heart attack or a stroke without an autopsy having been performed and access to that information....especially since no one was at the surface with her to observe her and/or talk to her about what she was experiencing. The local newspapers here are not above making stuff up. Given the absence of observable gross external injuries, about all you can rule out is that she wasn't attacked by a shark or chewed up by propellers.

If there was no sign of external injury, she could have been knocked on the head unconscious by a boat, since no SMB floating near the spot she went to the bottom.