It's true; there are divers that could be better about practicing their skills to keep them fresh, I know I've gotten lazy with them lately, but accidents are not something the diver expects. Accidents that happen typically stem from the unexpected (from the victims perspective), nobody starts a dive thinking "I'm not going home today". I find the "darwin @ work" comment to be in particularly poor taste, especially when we know so little about what happened. Somebody is lost at sea and may have lost their life, we should be able to show more respect than that...
This forum has many threads with accidents involving someone reportedly reaching the surface to call for help, only to slip away. Sometimes the solution seems as easy as 'inflate your BCD' or 'drop your weights', but it isn't always that simple. Not everyone starts out comfortable in the water, add to that fighting a current as mentioned above or dealing with any number of possible problems (equipment, medical, buddy, environmental, for example) and even simple tasks become difficult. The stress builds up and can lead to panic. That's why there's an emphasis in these threads about practicing skills such as sharing air, removing/replacing weights and oral inflation of the BCD. So that when sh*t hits the fan you aren't struggling with a forgotten skill and digging yourself further into a hole.
I remember when I was just starting out a few years ago, reading a thread that somehow ended up discussing DSMB use. Someone made the comment that the skill should still be practiced even if you've done it before. I had used a DSMB in my OW class and even bought one myself, but I hadn't used it since. Over the next few dives I decided to practice deploying my DSMB (among other things) at my safety stop, and went from 'I've done it before' to 'I can do it easily'. The practice paid off a few dives later when my buddy and I ran into issues on a boat dive in the middle of a river. Long story short we ended up doing our first bluewater (greenwater) ascent drifting away from the line. Low vis and strong current meant we were never going to make it back. By this point I was able to shoot my DSMB easily and rather than add stress to an unfamiliar and already stressful situation, it made things easier, giving us a visual refrence to our depth. Had I not practiced the skill I would have struggled with it like I did the first few times I practiced. Already being stressed out in that situation and focused on what would have been a frustrating task, it would not be hard to imagine that another (even minor) problem would have put me in a very bad spot.
