Palm Beach diver loses arm as group hit by boat - Florida

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Things like this make me day dream of legalizing it so dive boats with proper signage/floats/what-have-you be licensed to shoot at other vessels intruding into their space illegally. I wonder how many would have to get shot at before word got around?

Not gonna happen, but these tragedies are so frustrating.
 
The article doesn't say if the divers were flying a flag, or if the boat was a rental, so wondering.

Diver loses an arm in accident with boat off Palm Beach
PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A diver lost an arm when a boat came in contact with a group of divers in the water off Palm Beach Thursday afternoon.

According to Palm Beach Fire Rescue, the accident occurred on the north end of Palm Beach island near Root Trail.

Samantha Marulli of Palm Beach witnessed the accident from the beach and said several divers were in the water approximately 200 feet from the shore. She said the boat included children.

“A boat came along and went right over them. When they pulled him out of the water, he didn’t have an arm. The fireman used a paddle board to go out with a bag to get the arm,” Marulli said.

According to Marulli, FBI agents responded to the scene.

Coast Guard Lt. Commander Jason Neiman said, “The Coast Guard received a report that a Good Samaritan had located a severed arm. A Coast Guard member transferred it to the boat crew and it was transferred to the shore.”

The injured diver was transported to St. Mary's Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Palm Beach Fire Rescue, Palm Beach Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Florida Fish and Wildlife agents were at the scene of the accident.

The incident is still an active investigation by police.
 
Things like this make me day dream of legalizing it so dive boats with proper signage/floats/what-have-you be licensed to shoot at other vessels intruding into their space illegally. I wonder how many would have to get shot at before word got around?

Not gonna happen, but these tragedies are so frustrating.
Where does it say there was a dive boat involved, or even a dive float for that matter?
 
Things like this make me day dream of legalizing it so dive boats with proper signage/floats/what-have-you be licensed to shoot at other vessels intruding into their space illegally. I wonder how many would have to get shot at before word got around?

Not gonna happen, but these tragedies are so frustrating.

If I had to guess the boat was on autopilot with no one at the helm. A lot of people have more money than sense. Nevertheless, we don't have the details here, but I think it's worth noting that we don't anchor when diving and keep our boat live. Not only does this give us the ability to quickly retrieve a diver, it allows us to protect our divers from other boaters. On a number of occassions I have had to throttle up and force boats away from our guys.
 
Where does it say there was a dive boat involved, or even a dive float for that matter?

The type of boat was not specified. It was simply described as a boat. Horrible incident. I’m am hopeful the details of this accident to be revealed.

Samantha Marulli of Palm Beach witnessed the accident from the beach and said several divers were in the water approximately 200 feet from the shore. She said the boat had children on board. “A boat came along and went right over them. When they pulled him out of the water, he didn’t have an arm. The fireman used a paddle board to go out with a bag to get the arm,” Marulli said.
 
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It is possible that the divers were swimming off the beach to the reefs off of Root Trail. If a boat was running fast 200 ft off the beach on a reasonably calm day, that would be "unnecessary" and dangerous to swimmers etc.

The divers may not have had a boat to protect them from traffic. There are several mooring balls on the reefs in that area which are intended to promote the use of those reefs by divers and fisherman,
 
@Soloist yeah I read the article, my point was don't always assume that the driver of the boat is in the wrong.

Good point. I inferred from it being variously described as 'a group' and 'several' divers that there was a dive boat (and likely not a private boat with just 2 or 3 divers), but apparently a sizable group of shore divers is a possibility. Given the uncertainty I kept my comments a bit broad, given that it might just turn out the reality of the situation is a lot different.

Wonder when and if we'll get more details?

Richard.
 
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