Accident at casino point 9/23/12

[SeaSmith]

Accident at Casino Point September 23, 2012
I was at the Casino Point Dive Park just beginning to gear up for our first dive when the diver emergency occurred around 9:15am ~ 9:30am. At the buoy line west of the stair entry, a panicked DM was yelling for help and unable to wave because he was securing the injured diver at the surface. An immediate, succinct emergency call was made by a diver (instructor perhaps) on shore while another able diver with gear and air swam out to assist followed by a few others. Two harbor patrol boats one from each direction arrived within a few minutes and the diver was pulled into one of the boats and they sped away performing CPR. Paramedics and other local emergency service workers were alertly standing by on shore. On our second dive a bit before noon, we dove near the area where the accident occurred and I saw a red object slumping off one of the round concrete buoy anchors at the edge of the Dive Park. I recovered a red weight belt in the open position with five, 5Lb weights marked "CDS" at 76' and brought it back to shore. I saw Bob Kennedy soon after our dive and gave it to him. It was an intense happening and everyone was very concerned and hoping for the best.


I truly extend my condolences to the diver's family and friends...

 

[tempoffroad]

Loosing belt would be a sure rapid accent. If that's his belt and he had 25lbs that's a lot of weight on hip. I don't know what suit he was in. If the belt was found on the bouy anchor is that the bouy they would use to decend and accent from deep dive? If I dive heavy I split the weights up so I don't rely on just a belt. I have seen it before where they come off at depth.

 

[Scott]

Later that day at the hotel we were briefed on the incident. The diver was an advanced open water student, they went to a depth of close to 100 feet, the diver signaled ok and pressure reading, shortly afterwards he signaled the dive master for their group he was going to surface, from what our instructors gathered the diver surfaced from 100 feet without releasing air from his BC. the dive master from that group stated that at about 30-45 feet the diver became unresponsive, at the surface he had no pulse.

Who provided that briefing? Was it the victims instructor or your instructors that responded. If the later, how do they know what happened?

 

[marsmith]

Who provided that briefing? Was it the victims instructor or your instructors that responded. If the later, how do they know what happened?

Our instructors provided the briefing, one of our instructors was questioned by the la county deputy because he was one of the responders. He was there when they were talking to the aow instructor.

 

[freewillie]

Loosing belt would be a sure rapid accent. If that's his belt and he had 25lbs that's a lot of weight on hip. I don't know what suit he was in. If the belt was found on the bouy anchor is that the bouy they would use to decend and accent from deep dive? If I dive heavy I split the weights up so I don't rely on just a belt. I have seen it before where they come off at depth.

But we don't know if the DM ditched the weights at the surface. That would be consistent with an emergency and trying to establish buoyancy at the surface.

Statistically almost half of diving accidents have some sort of underlying medical condition associated with the accident, ie heart attack or similar. It does not always have to involve pure diving related incident, ie AGE or DCI. And just playing the odds more likely a coincidental health related incident while the person was diving.

But, any conjecture at this point is pure speculation.

 

[MMarkley]

May he rest in peace. My condolences to his friends and family.

 

[promocop]

WAITING on you Ken???

 

[Ken Kurtis]

WAITING on you Ken???

I'm in Bonaire. No direct info on this at this time.

- Ken

 

[Tony Viselli]

I think I knew this man. Does anyone know if he was from Las Vegas? We were informed of our friend passing In a scuba accident This past week. But nobody can give us any details on where he was so I've been searching 4 recent scuba diving accidents.

---------- Post Merged on September 30th, 2012 at 08:11 PM ---------- Previous Post was on September 29th, 2012 at 04:20 PM ----------

i dont know if the man you are speaking of is the same person but a pediatrician here in town where i live died at catalina this weekend scuba diving, he was there for his birthday, dont know a lot of details just heard equipment failure. Still waiting to hear more, i work for a pediatrician also

Yes he was a dear friend....and my sons pediatrician, the world lost a truly great man. He founded ACI pediatrics aswell.you will be truly missed Dr. Joe

 

[SeahorseDeb]

Just my two cents worth here, for learning purposes only: I dive cold freshwater most of the year, and salt a few times when I can get to it. I've dove Casino Point 6 times now, and I can say with certainty because the viz there far exceeds our usual 10-20', I have to keep a very close eye on my depth there. The great viz can be deceiving and I when I reached 85 feet it was like 5 feet back home due to the better light penetration. I also would like to see newly certified divers have more dives in their log before they go to AOW class. I recertified in 2008, but I personally waited until I had 75 dives before I went for my AOW. It was a higher standard I held myself to, and I was glad. Mistakes made during my class from other students, especially one when we reached 85 ' turned the dive around, so the whole class had to abort. .