Posted on Sat, Jul. 31, 2004
DEERFIELD BEACH
BSO: Inexperience a factor in diving death of teen
A lack of diving certification and experience may have contributed to the death of a 14-year-old Deerfield Beach boy who drowned Thursday while diving with his father.
BY CRISTINA SILVA
csilva@herald.com
Neither Yannick Berger nor his father, Herbert, was a certified diver, investigators say.
Both had only dived about two or three times.
Yet on Thursday, they headed out to the beach in diving gear and tanks. They waded into the ocean along the 900 block of Southwest 21st Avenue in Deerfield Beach. And they made their way out about 200 yards to a depth of about 12 feet, Broward Sheriff's Office said.
Their lack of certification and lack of experience might have contributed to Yannick's drowning death, BSO said.
During the dive, Herbert Berger, 39, surfaced to clear water from his mask. When he descended back into the water, he could not locate Yannick, 14, and called for help.
Lifeguards found Yannick about 20 minutes later on the ocean floor.
The boy was rushed to North Broward General Medical Center near Pompano Beach, and was pronounced dead soon afterward.
An autopsy Friday revealed the drowning was an accident.
Yannick's air tank was approximately two-thirds full when his body was recovered, BSO said.
But investigators also found that Yannick's buoyancy control device (BCD) contained 12 pounds of lead weight loaded into two utility pockets. The device allows divers to sink easily to the bottom of the ocean, said Jeff Porode, president of South Florida Diving Headquarters, a diving company in Pompano Beach.
In an emergency situation, however, divers should ditch the BCD weights so they can rise to the surface of the water, Porode said in an interview Thursday night.
Yannick did not do that.
Inexperienced divers might not know better or forget their training, Porode said.
BSO dispatch received the call for help about 4:50 p.m. and responded with a helicopter and a BSO Marine Unit vessel.
Deerfield Beach lifeguards also responded and located Yannick on the sea floor. By about 5:10 p.m., they had brought him to the surface and raced him to shore with the help of a water scooter. Whether or not equipment malfunction caused Yannick to drown is unclear.
Inexperience led to scuba diving death, official says
By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
July 31, 2004
Inexperience and lack of proper training contributed to the death of a 14-year-old boy who drowned while scuba diving with his father 200 yards off Deerfield Beach, the Broward Sheriff's Office said Friday.
The Broward County Medical Examiner's Office concluded Yannick Berger accidentally drowned. Berger disappeared late Thursday afternoon in 10 to 12 feet of water about a mile south of the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier.
Herbert Berger, 39, told investigators he surfaced to clear his mask shortly before 5 p.m. and lost sight of his son. Lifeguards found the 150-pound teenager, unresponsive, on the ocean floor about 30 minutes later, Sheriff's Office spokesman Hugh Graf said.
The teen was pronounced dead at Broward General Medical Center at 5:41 p.m.
"There's no suspicion of foul play," Graf said. "It appears it was just a tragic accident. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, and the investigation is continuing."
Thursday was the last day of the popular lobster mini-season, but Graf said there was no indication that the father and son were diving for lobsters when the accident occurred.
Neither was a certified diver, Graf said. Lack of experience is a leading cause of scuba deaths, said Sgt. Larry Whitford, commander of the Sheriff's Office Dive Team.
"We investigate anywhere from four to seven scuba fatalities a year. They're not uncommon," Whitford said. Generally, he added, the fatalities occurred because the divers were not certified or were newly certified. Panic can set in when a diver is unfamiliar with the equipment, he said.
Copyright © 2004,
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
As the father of a diving teen, my heart went out to the father and family when this story first broke. It's every parents worst nightmare. Now with this information out, all I feel is rage at such a senseless and careless death. That father now has to live the rest of his life with that knowledge that he killed his son.
Marc
