Scuba Diver speared in accident.....

[almitywife]

ouch!!

Scuba Diver Speared In Accident - FOX30Online.com



a man is recovering Monday morning after being shot with a spear gun while getting ready to go scuba diving.
We're still waiting for officials to release the victim's name.

He was out on the water off Saint Johns County when the "357-Magnum" spear gun, accidentally went off.

A man on the boat tells us everybody was getting their gear together when the accident happened.

The victim was airlifted to Shands, there is still no word on his condition.

 

[stu_in_fl]

ouch ! hope the guy is ok....wonder if it was his gun or someone elses......

..pretty much the first 2 "rules" of spearfishing - don't ever point your gun at anyone (self included) and never have a loaded gun on the boat (load and unload underwater - after you get in/before you get out)


a guy i worked with a few years back told me that he had managed to shoot himself in the foot with a speargun

 

[TwoBitTxn]

Ummmmm, no.

It was a power head. Someone elses.

TwoBit

 

[stu_in_fl]

Actually I did find another news article on this (although doesn't seem widely reported nor with much detail). It does appear to be a power head, but it appears it was his own. He sounds ilke he's not doing too well, so hope he pulls through.

From: palatkadailynews.com (Palatka, Florida. The Palatka Daily News. Palatka & Putnam County, Fla. only local news source.)

"Information is still sketchy. Apparently X was getting ready to dive and had his bang stick on the side of the boat ready to drop. As he was attempting to load the spear into the .357, the bang stick dropped to the deck, went off and the gun shot him with the .357 round."

 

[RonFrank]

Bummer,

I don't spearfish.... yet... but I do hunt. It's easy to grow comfortable with weapons, and become lazy with the rules. However I don't allow myself to do so, and I hope I never change.

Having a loaded spear gun on a boat I believe is one of those safety rules that could become easy to ignore.

Hope the victim is OK, but it sure does not sound good based on the reports.

 

[countachkid]

Mr. Fowler ,the man involved in the incident, was my dive instuctor and owner of my LDS. I've been out with him on a few dives. He was very safety oriented and this is the last person I would have expected something like this to happen to; really a freak accident. I HAVE NOT heard directly from his wife or family but I have heard through the grapevine here in Palatka that he was placed in a drug enduced coma, stabilized yesterday and was going in for surgery at Shands hospital. Shands is one of the top hospitals in the country so he's in good hands. He is in very good shape so hopefully that will help with the recovery. I will post anything else I hear.

 

[PalatkaBoy]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=92117

 

[aquaticmatt]

Best wishes to Mark. Very nice guy and last person I would have thought this would have happened to.

 

[ONESPEED]

More importantly best wishes to the injured diver for a speedy and full recovery.

 

[z3r0c00l]

From what I have seen in person, spear fishing people are pretty safe - but like the birds and bees, the safest thing is not to have a deadly weapon at all. I know a guy who spears all the time, he has not had an accident in my life time.

Yes I think SFing falls victim as much or more than any sport to macho guys who want to look cool. (I mean what is cooler than having a huge knife on your leg and a big gun?) The issue is that in scuba a macho guy probably only kills himself, in SFing a macho guy might kill someone else. But lets not make sweeping statements. I hope this guy is ok, but I fear he learned A hard way, but not the hardest way - living with the guilt of killing a person probably would be worse.