Scuba instructor drowns in Tyler, TX accident

[WaterWayne]

TYLER, Texas — An instructor at a scuba diving center drowned after an accident at the pool, police said Monday.

The instructor died Sunday after being taken to a hospital after the accident, officials said.

Police spokesman Don Martin said he would know more about the accident after an autopsy.

Center owner said an accident happened during preparations for diving.
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Information from staff of KLTV-TV & Tyler Morning Telegraph:

http://www.kltv.com & http://www.tylerpaper.com

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Condolences to the family, friends, and diving buddies.

 

[blindref757]

I live in Tyler...this is tragic news. Prayers to the friends and family.

 

[wilkie]

Sorry to hear about this incident. Condolences to the family.

I grew up in Tyler...Small world.

 

[Debraw]

My gosh, what a tragic accident. Very sorry to hear this has happened.

 

[DandyDon]

Very unfortunate - and a strong reminder so close to home that safety should be the priority even in a pool dive. I just never think of those as dangerous.

I could not find the story on the TV link, as it looks like the page has changed. I copied this from the newspaper source in cased it changes...

TYLER WOMAN DROWNS IN SCUBA ACCIDENT
STAFF
07/16/2006
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A Tyler woman drowned Sunday morning during a diving accident at the Scuba Center on Texas Highway 31 East.


Just after 11 a.m., Tyler Police received a call reporting that an individual had drowned.

The victim was identified as 47-year-old (name omiitted per forum guidelines).

(the female diver) was taken to East Texas Medical Center and put in the intensive care unit where she was listed in critical condition for several hours.

She died at 3:45 p.m. and was pronounced dead by Justice of the Peace James Meredith.

An autopsy will complete Tyler Police's investigation into the incident.

Police noted in a written statement that no foul play was suspected.

Efforts to reach personnel at The Scuba Center were not successful.

I hope some of our Tyler members can find additional news when available.

 

[Tyler Diver]

The "female instructor who drowned" and her husband were my scuba instructors some time back. Both are avid divers, very competent professionals and dedicated to making every student they trained a truly 'qualified diver'.
It seems in fact this was a very tragic accident in which some previously undetected physical condition had left her unable to return to the surface of the water. It is not known at this time what specifically was the underlieing cause of this tragedy but as I have seen speculations on other 'blog sites' it was NOT due to her having a weight belt on at the time of her entry into the water nor did the weight belt "pull her under too quickly or render her unable to return to the surface or pull her down at an unexpectedly fast rate in which she may have hit her head, etc..." And please forgive our small town police for chipping in the standard "no foul play is/was suspected" in reporting of this incident. Guess it makes us sound a little more important than we really are.
She was an excellent swimmer and in good physical condition from all outside appearances. And our small town scuba diving community has experienced a huge loss in this woman who truly loved the sport and profession of scuba diving, she will be missed... and without her my own world would have been truly less remarkable as her abilities have led me to discover the world underwater from the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia- and the many reefs I have yet to explore!
Thanks gal- you will be remembered and MISSED.

 

[DandyDon]

Tyler Diver you have our condolences for your loss, for whatever that might be worth. It does sound like you lost a dear friend as well as a great Inst. I still dive with one of my Insts, and nag him for some of his stunts, as it would hurt me too for him to be severely injured or lost. I've seen him hurt himself once.

In case you haven't read the Sticky on this forum, we do not use names when we discuss and accident so that a Google search on the deceased's name will not connect on our accident discussions. We try to learn from other's losses, while respecting them and their loved ones.

I thank you for the info you provided, and hope to see you around here....

 

[Knight]

Was the SI diving by solo or with others? very very rare to have a SI foul up in a swimming pool, I heard this one type and it was because the SI dived solo in pool to test new gear and ended up blacking out for some reason, sorry to hear about lose always sad to hear about SI's dying.

Always descending,
c.h.

 

[laserdoc]

please let us know what happened. To strange for a pool

 

[Seuss]

> To (sic) strange for a pool

As a lifeguard, I almost drown in a 1m deep lap pool after swimming myself to exhaustion. Just because it is a pool, doesn't mean that it is 100% safe.