Diver dies in Richmond, TX while cleaning water tank

[flots am]

Diver found dead in Richmond water storage tank | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

No word on how the incident happened, but since it was commercial in nature, hopefully OSHA will end up investigating and we can find out a cause. Doesn't sound like very good procedure if the only way he could tell his buddy was in trouble was when the line went slack. Although if it was bad gas, he could have passed out and been unable to send a line pull signal.

I'm not up on OSHA regs, but don't they require more supervision than just a guy holding a line?

I'd sort of expect that a safety diver of some sort would need to be with the working diver or at least in the water.

flots.

 

[Superlyte27]

not really, i described the guidelines above. Surface Supplied, Communication with surface, and a 3 man dive team. There's a ton of other regs. but those are the basics

 

[AggieDiver]

I am not sure how different the OSHA regs are from the Army Corps of Engineers regs, but USACE allows line pull signals as a method of comms to the surface, but I believe you have to have a backup method. We use voice comms with line pulls as a backup if the divers are tethered.

USACE also allows divers to dive alone on SCUBA as long as they are tethered, but requires comms (doesn't specify voice), a tender, a standby diver, and a dive supervisor (4 man minimum crew). If the story from channel 2 is accurate, it sounds like there was a second working diver, which can be done with the 2nd diver as the standby as long as both divers are tended separately (5 man crew). I suspect that the news stations are struggling a bit to get the details right if they don't have anybody covering the story who is familiar with diving terms.

 

[flots am]

not really, i described the guidelines above. Surface Supplied, Communication with surface, and a 3 man dive team. There's a ton of other regs. but those are the basics

So he actually required two men in the water with him?

That sounds a lot safer than a guy in the water on SCUBA and some guy holding a rope on the surface.

flots.

 

[Superlyte27]

No, not two men in the water with him. 3 man Dive team would consist of a man operating the com's/gas rack, a tender holding the umbilical, and the diver in the water. A standby rig would be setup and ready to go. If the diver got into trouble, the COM's guy would call 911, while the tender would don the standby rig and jump in the water to rescue.

 

[joshts0]

I am a friend of ... well I am a friend of the girlfriend of the man this article is about, unfortunately... saw this thread while I was searching on Google for the news article, decided I would drop in to maybe learn a thing or two from a scuba diving prospective.

The only info the family has, at least that I am aware of, is that which is in the news articles... so pretty much any questions you have.. no one has the answers for right now.

But a bit more background..

This was his third day on the job. It was his first dive for this company. The previous day the girlfriend was told by the guy he thought they were going to let him dive the next day (... obviously they did). Moreso, he definitely has his scuba license, but he was likely out of practice. It had been a while (I do not know how long) since his last dive. Here is the best question of all, from an employer perspective, WHY THE **** DID YOU SEND THE GUY THAT JUST 'CLAIMED' TO KNOW HOW TO DIVE INTO A TANK, FIRST, AND BY HIMSELF, AND WITHOUT CONSTANT COMMUNICATION. Not to say he didn't know how to dive by any means, I have no knowledge of that matter.. honestly I didn't really know him that well, unfortunately. I thought I would have plenty of time to get to know him.. but something like this happens and you realize how short life can be. But, from an employer perspective, you don't just take someones word for it. You make them show you... not let someone go in unattended.

(I say unattended.. I wasn't there.. but how could he be attended to and have this happen)

The SECOND diver had REGULATOR problems?!?! What the **** did the first dive have. Speculation completely, but perhaps he also had regulator problems and inexperience or out of experience contributed to not handling it appropriately? I was talking with a friend who has scuba experience, and he pointed out that ... something has to have happened, because, why didn't he just.. come up for air. It wasn't THAT deep. And the second diver who.. just.. went up for air and waited around for an hour before anyone got him out?!?!?! hold your ****ing breath and jump in for christ sakes. From what I understand.. you don't really need oxygen to get TO the bottom in 30 feet.. you just need it to stay at the bottom.

This is a contractor company, not a direct hire to the city. It sounds like that could be yet more extremely unfortunate news in terms of any type of benefits from what I've been reading on all the comments from various news posts about this.

I certainly don't have all the details, but it sure sounds like complete negligence by the employer, regardless of how it happened or even if it was 100% his 'fault'.

 

[joshts0]

Obviously from the perspective of this board, I know you want to know -how- it happened, in regards to the sport. I am interested and have been following skydiving.. the skydiving forums do the same thing. Any news article about a skydiving death, ever, gets talked about, we all want to know -why- and -how- it happened to prevent it in the future. Hopefully we will all find out...

 

[dfwterry]

I knew Travis. He was only Open Water certified and that was back in 3/09 and to my knowledge he didn't dive after that. He was excited about his new job. I just don't understand how a company would send in a new employee/diver after only 3 days into an overhead environment that his open water certification didn't cover. I don't care how much training they tried to cram in Mon and Tues...why was Travis the first one in the tank Wed? This seems like such a needless, senseless tragidy. My heart goes out to his father Paul, his Mother and his girlfriend. I cannot begin to imagin what they must be going through. I know they want answers. Answers I'm afraid that only Travis could give since he was alone. That is what pisses me off. He shouldn't have been alone! Rest in Peace my friend. You will be greatly missed!

 

[Steve50]

I knew Travis. He was only Open Water certified and that was back in 3/09 and to my knowledge he didn't dive after that. He was excited about his new job. I just don't understand how a company would send in a new employee/diver after only 3 days into an overhead environment that his open water certification didn't cover. I don't care how much training they tried to cram in Mon and Tues...why was Travis the first one in the tank Wed? This seems like such a needless, senseless tragidy. My heart goes out to his father Paul, his Mother and his girlfriend. I cannot begin to imagin what they must be going through. I know they want answers. Answers I'm afraid that only Travis could give since he was alone. That is what pisses me off. He shouldn't have been alone! Rest in Peace my friend. You will be greatly missed!

FYI it doesn't seem that the tank constituted an overhead environment (nothing to prevent reaching the surface).

 

[joshts0]

Isn't it though.. none of this should have happened. Regardless of what unfortunate circumstances happened inside the tank, WHY WAS HE THERE, FIRST, ALONE, AND UNMONITORED ON HIS FIRST DIVE WITH THE COMPANY EVER.

Right now, obviously there are much more important things, like how his family and those that were close to him are doing, it is unbelievable unfortunate that they have to go through this over what sounds like utter and COMPLETE negligence. I couldn't imagine how a parent must feel after something like this happens.. that shouldn't have happened. At least without any real details at this point, it doesn't sound like this was just some 'unfortunate accident', it sounds like a negligence on part of the employer and not following proper safety requirements/regulations, and I truly hope that they figure out exactly what happened, and any negligence is dealt with.