Diver Dead in South Florida

[Cert1967]

From what I understand, the Florida homestead exemption pertains to property taxes.

Bankruptcy - Exempt Property in Florida - Ayo and Iken

Florida? Perhaps the best state in the USA for debtor protection in BK

 

[Jcp2]

Endorsed by OJ.

 

[DandyDon]

Lawsuit alleges dive boat backed over woman off Palm Beach, fatally slicing legs

A dive operator using a larger, two-engine boat for the third time backed over a client's legs off Palm Beach, and the Space Coast woman bled to death before she could get to help, her widower contends in a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court by Sean Flynn of Melbourne in the March 29 death of his wife, Mollie Ghiz-Flynn, 37.

It names Florida Scuba Charters and owners Dustin and Kristy McCabe, as well as Safe Harbor North Palm Beach, the corporate parent of the North Palm Beach marina. Efforts to reach the McCabes for comment were unsuccessful.

According to the lawsuit, the incident occurred March 29 as the dive boat was about 1½ miles southeast of the Palm Beach Inlet at a popular diving spot called Breakers Reef, just off the coast from the Palm Beach hotel for which it's named.

coronavirus pandemic. The suit says the marina should not have facilitated the dive.

The marina's general manager, Josh Stieb, said Friday he had not yet seen the lawsuit and so could not comment.

Stieb told The Post shortly after the incident that some dive operators were able to cite an exemption for commercial fishermen, because their divers also caught fish and they had state licenses for that. He said at the time he was familiar with Florida Scuba Charters only in passing.

Sean Flynn said July 30 that he and his wife had been married for three years. He said the two were managers of a Melbourne-area landscaping supply store.

Flynn, 41, said he’d dived since he was 18 and that his wife had picked up the avocation about four years earlier.

Asked why the couple came down to North Palm Beach, about 100 miles from their home, he said Ghiz-Flynn “was a creature of habit.” She said McCabe had been captain of the boat she was on when she was certified.

Flynn said he didn't want to tell the story of his wife’s death again, both because of the pending suit and because it was just too emotional.

He did say: "She had the biggest heart of anybody I ever met. She would do anything for anybody if she could."

 

[Manatee Diver]

- The victim was no longer bleeding when pulled out of the water despite chop wounds to her legs from the propeller. I wonder how this could be, did she bleed out or when a victim drowns and the heart stops does blood stop flowing?

She was dead. A femoral artery bleeds can result in death due to blood loss very quickly minutes.

I was taught that if you see a massive hemorrhage and the victim doesn't have a heart beat triage them as expectant/dead.

ETA: Now if she was alive when they pulled her aboard, the body's shock response to massive trauma can cause minimal blood to flow out. And that once the body relaxes you will see major bleed. And we are told to tourniquet severed limbs even if there is minimal blood loss at the time. Assuming the victim is alive.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

According to the lawsuit

- The victim was under the influence of marijuana and amphetamines. Irresponsible! May weaken the lawsuit. The attorneys (who are also suing the marina -deeper pockets-) contend that the drugs had nothing to do with the accident. Well of course they're going to say that!
- The victim was no longer bleeding when pulled out of the water despite chop wounds to her legs from the propeller. I wonder how this could be, did she bleed out or when a victim drowns and the heart stops does blood stop flowing?
- The Captain put the boat in reverse and ran over the divers. Someone (presumably from the boat crew) told investigators that a big wave lifted the boat and swept the divers under it (nice try).
- The incident happened on the second day and only the third dive trip that Dustin was operating the boat after having recently purchased it, and on the previous day he had a lot of trouble maneuvering it and one diver was swept towards the moving props but used a speargun to push away. The boat was apparently damaged when due to difficulty handing it, it ran aground near a fuel dock station.
- Several who were present on day one begged Dustin not to go out the next day until the boat was properly repaired and he had gained more experience with it.

Given what happened the day before...I doubt that a jury is going to concern themselves too much with the toxicology report. If he didn’t kill the victim that day, it was going to be someone else on another day, as he clearly hadn’t learned from the first incident.

He never should have taken the boat out that day. Period.

 

[Protondecay123]

According to the lawsuit

- The victim was under the influence of marijuana and amphetamines. Irresponsible! May weaken the lawsuit. The attorneys (who are also suing the marina -deeper pockets-) contend that the drugs had nothing to do with the accident. Well of course they're going to say that!

There is a difference between having laboratory detectable levels of a drug and being under the influence of it. Marijuana can stay detectable for up to 30 days in your bloodstream after usage.

 

[hroark2112]

IIRC the amphetamine is from weight loss pills. Not like she was a meth addict tweeker under the influence. I’m sure if I took a blood test I’d pop positive for amphetamines as well since I’m on Adderall. I disclose it on any dive medical release and keep a current doctor signed physical on file just in case, but I don’t think either drug she allegedly had in her system had any impact on the accident.

The best swimmer you know, 100% free of any kind of drugs in their system, is not going to out swim a 40’ boat in reverse. Add in all the gear, waves, and a boat backing down on you and none of us would have stood a chance.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

From what I read, a diver on the previous day's charter was resourceful enough to get out of harm's way.

That diver had a speargun in hand to use as a dive boat stick. Resourceful? I believe that lucky is the word you’re looking for there.

 

[hroark2112]

Lucky is definitely the word. Resourceful too, but damn lucky!

I was trying to get up a ladder one day in similar conditions. The waves picked the back of the boat up and I caught the dive ladder in the sternum. Knocked my breath out of me, hurt for a few days. It all happened so quickly I barely had time to react. Lucky for me I learned to dive in NC where we are told by boat captains to leave our regulator in our mouth until both feet are on the deck. I was under water for a few seconds and was thrown face down away from the boat. As long as I could breathe I was OK, so nothing more than bruised ribs and a badly bruised ego!

 

[Cert1967]

According to the lawsuit

According to the newspaper article?