Incident in West Palm Beach - May 18

[dumpsterDiver]

I think the captain who ditches his divers to help ONE diver places himself in a vulnerable position with regard to liability, should another diver he left (get hit by a boat or have some serious problem or injury). If the captain chooses to bring in someone who had very little chance of recovery, an atty might argue that this contributed to another healthy and competent diver getting killed by a high speed boat (who just wasn't watching in bad weather)... there would be some problems. It is unlikely they would be hit, but thunderstorms do pop up, some boats do operate at high speed and rely upon radar to look for other boats.. so a terrible accident is easily foreseeable.

On the other hand, there are many dive boats operating in a relatively small area, and they can and will assist in life or death emergencies. I for one, am glad that the captain stuck his/her neck out to do everything in their power to try to save the one injured diver. These captains know the currents and the drift and if they know where and when they left divers drifting on the surface, it is EXTREMELY unlikely that anyone could drift off and be lost for any considerable period of time unless the weather and atmospheric visibility was terrible.

Did the diver make it?

 

[Conan3]

Sorry to hear about the Diver hope he makes it.

When I dove off West Palm Beach with one of the dive boats you could see shore from the dive sites.

It would suck to have to swim for it, but if in need.

 

[Superlyte27]

As a boat captain in the Key Largo, I can say this is NOT how it's done. I'm pretty sure the Coast Guard would have my testicles in a vice if I pulled this. I cannot leave people in the water.

This has NEVER been part of any briefing I've been given.

With that said, I hope the guy makes it.

 

[MrChen]

It was just prior to our second dive of the afternoon, and after picking the three divers up we continued with the dive as planned. Two of those we picked up were also from Georgia, so I assume they were part of the same group as the victim.

I would hope that the other Captain wouldn't have left his divers without being sure they would be taken care of. Their dive site was within visual range of where we were, so it was easy to know where they would be. Once he could see we were on our way, he made a beeline for shore at full throttle, which would have been at the same time his divers were surfacing. The seas weren't especially high and dive leader had deployed a safety sausage in addition to having the dive flag, so they were fairly simple to spot. Had they not have had that stuff, it might have been a bit trickier. As it was they really weren't in any danger, but it must have been a long minute or two for them between seeing their boat take off until figuring out they hadn't been abandoned.

Anyway, I haven't been able to find anything further on the man who went to the hospital. I hope the outcome was positive...

Wow, what an experience. Thank you for the update and it's comforting to know the captain juggled all issues and didn't leave anyone in the water in danger.

 

[Superlyte27]

...captain juggled all issues and didn't leave anyone in the water in danger.

That's not what I read. If you think you can drive off and leave someone in the open ocean, and radio for more help hoping someone is immediately in the area and has the wherewithal to be listening to his radio and doesn't have his own group in the water, isn't "leaving anyone in the water in danger", you haven't spent much time on a boat.

He potentially sacrificed three lives to save one. His entire group is his responsibility. That responsibility doesn't end until he's moored at the dock and everyone is off of the boat. You cannot leave them in the water to rush someone back to shore, I don't care what's wrong with the victim.

The people in the water could have drifted away and been lost, they could have been run over, they could have panicked and separated, or any number of equally stupid things. I promise the Coast Guard would not agree that the people left in the water were in no danger.

 

[dshorwich]

I think the captain who ditches his divers to help ONE diver places himself in a vulnerable position with regard to liability, should another diver he left (get hit by a boat or have some serious problem or injury). If the captain chooses to bring in someone who had very little chance of recovery, an atty might argue that this contributed to another healthy and competent diver getting killed by a high speed boat (who just wasn't watching in bad weather)... there would be some problems. It is unlikely they would be hit, but thunderstorms do pop up, some boats do operate at high speed and rely upon radar to look for other boats.. so a terrible accident is easily foreseeable.

If you think you can drive off and leave someone in the open ocean, and radio for more help hoping someone is immediately in the area and has the wherewithal to be listening to his radio and doesn't have his own group in the water, isn't "leaving anyone in the water in danger", you haven't spent much time on a boat.

He potentially sacrificed three lives to save one. His entire group is his responsibility. That responsibility doesn't end until he's moored at the dock and everyone is off of the boat. You cannot leave them in the water to rush someone back to shore, I don't care what's wrong with the victim.

The people in the water could have drifted away and been lost, they could have been run over, they could have panicked and separated, or any number of equally stupid things. I promise the Coast Guard would not agree that the people left in the water were in no danger.

This may well be the case in South Florida, but things are different here in Monterey waters - if a diver needs to be rushed to shore for medical attention, a recall is sounded and a large float is attached to the anchor line to give the the other divers something to hold onto and maintain position. You can see the floats (the large orange objects) on the top decks of the boats in the pictures I've attached.

If our local Coast Guard had a problem with this, I doubt it would be the routine contingency plan that it is for Northern California dive boats. I've not dived in South Florida, but I suspect we have much less boat traffic here than you do there, nor do we have to worry about the Gulf Stream sweeping divers miles up the coast. Again, the thread linked to below describes how this works in practice.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ac...61-boat-dive-incident-monterey-1-19-13-a.html

 

[uncfnp]

To leave or not to leave. Obviously, every situation is unique and risk/benefit would need to be weighed individually but I would think that there would be some regional standards in place to deal with emergencies such as this. There obviously is in Northern California and I would be surprised if there were not plans or common practices in place for Southern Florida as well.

In this case, another boat is obviously ready and able to assist. The weather and water conditions were not unusual. The divers were with a DM that I assume had a dive flag. There was a true medical emergency on the boat with an individual that needed urgent medical care. Under these circumstances, why would the Captain not go to shore? If I would the diver in the water, I would expect the emergency to take precedence under these conditions. Yes, it was one diver vs three but the one was critical while the three were in no more danger than any diver that is drift diving in Florida.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

 

[kelemvor]

I'm kind of surprised the USCG hasn't published at least a recommendation for a standard procedure in this situation.

 

[templeton]

That's not what I read. If you think you can drive off and leave someone in the open ocean, and radio for more help hoping someone is immediately in the area and has the wherewithal to be listening to his radio and doesn't have his own group in the water, isn't "leaving anyone in the water in danger", you haven't spent much time on a boat.

He potentially sacrificed three lives to save one. His entire group is his responsibility. That responsibility doesn't end until he's moored at the dock and everyone is off of the boat. You cannot leave them in the water to rush someone back to shore, I don't care what's wrong with the victim.

The people in the water could have drifted away and been lost, they could have been run over, they could have panicked and separated, or any number of equally stupid things. I promise the Coast Guard would not agree that the people left in the water were in no danger.

I would agree with you in most circumstances, but in this specific situation it was not an issue. Plus, you're making arguments or assumptions counter to what I have previously stated. The Captain of the other boat did not send out a random distress radio call and take off, hoping someone would happen to show up. He specifically contacted our boat - which he could see - and asked us to come over and assist. And as it is more or less stated, he did not leave his dive site until he had visual confirmation (and obviously a verbal response/confirmation from our Captain) that we were on our way to his position, which wasn't any great distance. Granted everyone was lucky all around that we just happened to be in a position to respond immediately.

Truly there was some risk no matter what. Obviously he made the judgement call that given our proximity, the greater danger and priority was to the man with the medical emergency. Could it have gone badly for the divers he left behind? Possibly. There was no perfect solution, and while I can't say that it was proper procedure or not, at the time the consensus was that it was the best course of action given the circumstances.

 

[letterboy]

The way I read it was he did not leave until he knew his remaining divers had a ride...

Would have been not a good time to have no one respond to your hails...

Had he just sped off and as an after thought called there would be a problem. But again, I read it as he remained on station until he had relief for lack of a better way to say it...

Any word on the diver yet?