Accident at Vortex Springs 8-20-10

[gypsyjim]

This entire thread has been a hard read. Very sad for everyone involved. It is hard for those of us not trained in cave diving to begin to appreciate the effort put into this search, or for most of us to really understand the pain felt by the family and friends of the victim.

Thanks to all the volunteers. Thanks to others here, who have helped the rest of us understand the risks involved. Heart felt condolences to those who have lost a friend and loved one

Thanks for sharing this thread, which hopefully helps prevent other such accidents in the future.

 

[tn]

Wow, those were my pictures of Ben. Someone must have been looking on Sunshine Underground to find those. Good times. <3

 

[wjefferis]

I hope that the official report or link to it will be posted on this thread later when it is available.

 

[BabyDuck]

i've seen that happen (so far, in only my 4 years of cave diving) once.

you might get to read the iucrr report in a year or two, but that's almost always facts without interpretation.

so don't hold your breath for anything 'official' - you're looking at the best we get. which is exactly why we do this hash, rehash, and overhash...

 

[FellainTN]

I have been following this thread from the beginning and I have known Ben for only a couple of years and hung out with he and his brother Paul on multiple occasions. From everything I have read, truth and speculation as to what happened, it does not surprise me about him. Ben was a person that lived life beyond 95% of us. My prayers are for his loved ones and all of those that put their lives in harm's way to help out with this tragic accident.

My question is about his dive log and how it was available to be viewed. I ask this out of ignorance because I am not familiar with the dive log. Obviously this is something that every diver has and it must be very personal information for Ben to write about his trick with the lock/gate. Surely something with such incriminating info would not be left for anyone to view.

Also I am attaching an image of the map from the news video which I have pieced together if anyone would like to share more information since it shows more detail than the previously posted map.

 

[LinetteH]

For those familiar with Vortex:
Are there any high ceilings or cracks close to the cave entrance or in the cavern area where a positively buoyant diver could be pinned? I wonder if the underside of the docks have been checked.
Its possible in a panic that he nearly found his way out but was either OOG, blew deco, or attempted a buoyant ascent.

We were there on Saturday and the divers were going under the docks while we were standing on them feeding the fish.

 

[funrecdiver]

This was a very good discussion. I was also pleased to see the level of emotion kept to a minimal, since the focus of this forum is analysis, not condolences.

My thoughts are quite different about prevention.

Yes, we agree that we can all kumbaya on the same lesson learned, which is the same "dive only within your training and experience level"; but this lesson with be "relearned" over and over again in the future. I think we should go further.

First of all, since a cave like Vortex is well known and open to the public, why not do more to insure it can be dived safely? Why not install, for example, (1) a minimal system of underwater lights and/or (2) emergency air (breathing gas) stations at key jumps and/or (3) some emergency signaling device and/or (4) highly reliable (not breakable) lines, in a highly public cave.

In other words, since some caves are well known, very public and without any workable means to insure that unqualified divers do not dive there; instead of simply blaming death on the divers, why not make some caves more safer by investing money in one or more of the "off the top of my head" bullet items above or suggest other things/mechanisms/safety devices/controls to make cave diving safer? Not all caves, of course; but there must be some public, well known, caves, perhaps like Vortex, where the owners (or a diving club or association) could invest in making the cave safer for all (trained, qualified, certified, and/or foolish), versus the current "it is an accident waiting to happen" and "dive at your own risk" and "it is always the divers fault because they are not well trained" themes (and "lessons learned") we read about repeatedly.

 

[Splitlip]

speechless

 

[RhinoGuy]

The gate was secured by three small lengths of chain. Two on the left that were bolted together. Those were the hinges. In 2000 (or around that time) I put those, or ones like it, there at the request of Danny and Mr Vic. The chain on the right is used to secure it with a lock. It would be very easy to unbolt the chains and place locks on the backside and out of sight. Most of us that dive it may just think it was done as an additional safety factor by Vortex. It is fairly crude, but works for the most part. Maybe that will shed some clarity on this issue.

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Cleavitt]

My question is about his dive log and how it was available to be viewed. I ask this out of ignorance because I am not familiar with the dive log. Obviously this is something that every diver has and it must be very personal information for Ben to write about his trick with the lock/gate. Surely something with such incriminating info would not be left for anyone to view.

I don't know how they recovery divers got to see Ben's dive log, but I suspect the police on scene might have searched his car to find clues as to where the victim might be. They would probably have reviewed the dive log with the recovery divers since it would make more sense to them.

As far as dive logs, some divers don't keep a dive log at all. Others just use it to track the stats like depth, time, location, etc. Some divers use their dive log more like a journal with detailed accounts of their dives.

It would have been relavent to the search because cave divers often record routes, specific landmarks, and other dive planning info in their dive logs.