English tourist dies on Intro dive - Queenland Australia

[John the Pom]

Certainly a few years ago Hayman Is. was at the "luxury" end of resort tourism. We anchored next to a very well-appointed boat they ran out to the reef from the island, and there seemed to be more staff than divers. Above water at least, their divers were looked after to the point of being spoilt - setting up the gear for them and taking it down again etc. (which I really hate!). Some of the crew came over to our boat chat about the diving. They seemed bored. They had such an excess of food, they brought some over for us.

Around the Whitsunday Island themselves though, the visibility can be surprisingly bad, and the tidal currents are strong and difficult to judge. We were in a sailboat, and we had a couple of tricky moments going through the islands as we weren't familiar with the waters.

 

[Carl_F]

The Coroner has released his findings in relation to this matter. I cannot locate the full reasons as yet but there is a reasonable summary at this link...

Coroner releases findings into British tourist's scuba death

The Coroner's recommendations are:​

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Several of these are already the standard for DSD so of no additional value.

And requiring a DSD to do what amounts to all the skills for an OW diver would render the DSD program(s) moot.

Carl

 

[caydiver]

It is very sad for all involved and a true shame that a family had to lose someone so young. It is even sadder that newspapers get away with headlines like Ominous Final Picture. It was a picture of an excited and happy young woman. All the suposition in the world will not help or solve. I have been to both Hayman and Lizard where a young staff member recently drown snorkeling. In both places I found the dive staff extremely competent if not overwhelming and the equipment to be excellent. Diving does take humans outside their environment and places them in a alien one. Some people are not going to enjoy it and some are going to lose their poop but lawyers, solicitors and press help no one but themselves. Totally shameful and truly sad for loved ones trying to deal with grief.

 

[clownfishsydney]

The dive site where this unfortunate accident happened is probably one of the easiest and safest site I have dived in my over 4,050 dives. Personally, reading the recommendations after seeing other evidence about what happened, I doubt that it would make any difference to what happened (see my later comment). My very first dive back in 1988 in French Polynesia was a "resort dive". We were properly trained before we did it. However, from what I see now, resort courses do not have the level of training I did before I did my actual first dive. Perhaps it is time to totally ban them except in a swimming pool?

 

[kelemvor]

The Coroner has released his findings in relation to this matter. I cannot locate the full reasons as yet but there is a reasonable summary at this link...

Coroner releases findings into British tourist's scuba death

The Coroner's recommendations are:
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  • A maximum introductory diver to instructor ratio of 2-1, or 1-1 if conditions are poor (such as current, visibility or surface chop).

  • That the term 'resort dive' be renamed to 'introductory dive'.

  • That instructors are to be always within arms-length of introductory divers, and to link arms if conditions are assessed as poor or very poor.

  • Dive instructors must do a dive site assessment, including assessing visibility with a secchi disk and conducting an in-water (at depth) visual inspection for horizontal visibility and to assess current.

  • That elementary dive skills, including mask clearing, regulator clearing, regulator recovery, buddy breathing, Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) inflate/deflate and emergency weight belt dropping are taught until competently demonstrated, within a controlled environment such as a swimming pool.

  • That diving groups are staggered and that routes are determined in a way to avoid dive group interaction while underwater.

  • That dive instructors have the final decision on whether a dive proceeds or is terminated. Not the tour operator or skipper, who may have commercial considerations influencing their judgment.

  • That safety measures include the 'surface watch' personnel having an emergency 'grab bag' on-board, which includes a weighted lost diver marker, and that instructors carry a suitable underwater marker system.

  • That swimming fins, if used, must include an accompanying 'fin safe' style retainer strap.

  • Whether a policy should be implemented that if any diver becomes separated all divers in a group must immediately surface and inflate their BCD, even though it is an emergency ascent.

  • That the Office of Industrial Relations consider, within six months, whether the relevant Code of Practice needs to be mandated as the minimum standard for operations, rather than being "guidelines”.

  • That the Dive and Snorkelling Death Review Panel be reformed by the Office of Industrial Relations, preferably within three months.

Personally, as someone who was an awful DSD student I think there is a lot to be said for lower ratios. I was very fortunate as I was in a one on one situation. Knowing how terrible I was at the start I can see how accidents like this can occur.

Some of the recommendations though I think would be very hard to implement. For example determining routes to avoid dive group interaction underwater.

Since nobody's coming unglued I guess this must be just a difference in how we do things in the US vs Australia. Here I would expect a coroner to tell us what caused the death and that's it. Recommending changes in rules about anything at all seems way out of line for a guy who specializes in determining why someone died. I expected a response like "drowned" or "heart attack". Is this a normal type of report from a Coroner in Aus?

 

[caydiver]

I know ops that will take everyone on a DSD despite their comfort and skills. I also know ops where the DMs will go totally above and beyond to help a student be comfortable or master a skill. Same with OW. Some ops tell their DMs to pass them. The same could be said for any where in the world I guess Sadly I don’t think there is a fix for any of this. Just like folks who have a driving license who should never be behind the wheel of a car! Maybe the best we can do is realize and respect our limitations. Some of the worst divers we see are the know it alls. The newbies for the most part are easy as long as they are comfortable in the water. Probably my biggest pet peeve are the folks who give advice with no real training or background. Some of the conversations on the boat are incredible. Don’t understand why not asking the DM but rather the bigmouth sitting next to you is the answer. We can all google stuff most of which should have gone through someone’s air hose. I suspect the coroner and solicitors and press do the same. Pick out the bits that support their agenda without the knowledge not to realize what they are saying is useless or worst. We see it right here time and time again from rec divers with lots if dives so why not from the nondiving public. Just very sad really.

 

[lowflyer]

The instructor giving evidence against the person involved says instructors need to be 'within arm's reach' of their students at all times. Thoughts?

I don't know under what agency this introductory scuba outing was offered, but PADI clearly states in its standards that an instructor must conduct the open water portion of the course. The instructor must, "conduct risk assessment by evaluating variables such as water conditions, temperature, visibility,..."etc.
Further, the instructor must, "position yourself so that you or a certified assistant can make immediate physical contact with, adjust buoyancy for, and render assistance to participants."

Sounds like the coroner questions whether these standards were met.

 

[kelemvor]

I found this in the linked article:

Mr O'Connell found Ms Farrell's drowning <fluff removed>- occurred "when she could not maintain surface buoyancy after she became separated from her dive instructor whilst underwater”.

"Separation was likely due to poor underwater visibility and a lack of adequate instructor supervision,”

Seems reasonable to me. I never did a DSD but I thought most agency standards require the instructor to be in control of the customer at all times, so I'd expect that instructor to be in trouble. It sounds like there might be some kind of laws that were broken from that article. Are there actual laws in Australia about the specifics of scuba diving or is it just a "negligence" type thing they are talking about?

 

[caydiver]

In Cayman there are lots of rules and regulations we are supposed to adhere to but apparently are not actual laws so in theory cannot be legally enforced. I guess when a tradegy occurs they may rethink it. Maybe it is the same in OZ. The responsible ops try to do the suggested things, even if it means angry customers sometimes, and the ones who are in it for the money just worry about turnover.

 

[PugHugger]

Since nobody's coming unglued I guess this must be just a difference in how we do things in the US vs Australia. Here I would expect a coroner to tell us what caused the death and that's it. Recommending changes in rules about anything at all seems way out of line for a guy who specializes in determining why someone died. I expected a response like "drowned" or "heart attack". Is this a normal type of report from a Coroner in Aus?

Quite normal. Our coronial inquests will often be a simple finding with no recommendations made. However it is not at all unusual for recommendations to be made following an enquiry. Especially if the coroner perceives something was handled poorly or a death was preventable.

What is perhaps more unusual is for those recommendations to be implemented (or depending on the very wide range of cases, practical).

I recall for example various recommendations being made and many implemented following a domestic violence murder some years back (the lead up to the murder was perhaps handled less than ideally). There were also various recommendations and comments made about shark shields when a diver was taken from a reef off shore in South Australia.