Shallow fresh water accidents

[rainierblue]

I didn't word my question very well. I actually want to find some statistical information rather than individual stories. (ALthoiugh the story of each accident sure yhelps put the numbers in perspective) Any sources out there? I've heard of all these things everyone mentioned but, other than heart attack, have never known personally of an incident that wasn't precipitated by some oither non-diving mistake. I'd like to know what the extent of the risk is for different hazards.

I'm looking at the difference between "commercial" diving and "scientific" diving in the OSHA regs, particularly in shallow water in fresh water lakes where the divers rarely go deeper than 15 feet and never over 25 feet, and got to thnking about what the hazards truly are and how often do they happen. No, I'm not a regulator, I'm a safety guy for a municipality. I know this forum is mostly recreational divers but thought there may be some good resources here.

 

[walke121]

I didn't word my question very well. I actually want to find some statistical information rather than individual stories. (ALthoiugh the story of each accident sure yhelps put the numbers in perspective) Any sources out there? I've heard of all these things everyone mentioned but, other than heart attack, have never known personally of an incident that wasn't precipitated by some oither non-diving mistake. I'd like to know what the extent of the risk is for different hazards.

I'm looking at the difference between "commercial" diving and "scientific" diving in the OSHA regs, particularly in shallow water in fresh water lakes where the divers rarely go deeper than 15 feet and never over 25 feet, and got to thnking about what the hazards truly are and how often do they happen. No, I'm not a regulator, I'm a safety guy for a municipality. I know this forum is mostly recreational divers but thought there may be some good resources here.

Contact DAN, they should have all the information you are looking for.

 

[Thalassamania]

I didn't word my question very well. I actually want to find some statistical information rather than individual stories. (ALthoiugh the story of each accident sure yhelps put the numbers in perspective) Any sources out there? I've heard of all these things everyone mentioned but, other than heart attack, have never known personally of an incident that wasn't precipitated by some oither non-diving mistake. I'd like to know what the extent of the risk is for different hazards.

I'm looking at the difference between "commercial" diving and "scientific" diving in the OSHA regs, particularly in shallow water in fresh water lakes where the divers rarely go deeper than 15 feet and never over 25 feet, and got to thnking about what the hazards truly are and how often do they happen. No, I'm not a regulator, I'm a safety guy for a municipality. I know this forum is mostly recreational divers but thought there may be some good resources here.

There are zero scientific diving fatalities in shallow fresh water, if fact (I believe) there are zero work loss injuries under such circumstances.

 

[K_girl]

..
I'm looking at the difference between "commercial" diving and "scientific" diving in the OSHA regs, particularly in shallow water in fresh water lakes where the divers rarely go deeper than 15 feet and never over 25 feet, and got to thnking about what the hazards truly are and how often do they happen. No, I'm not a regulator, I'm a safety guy for a municipality. I know this forum is mostly recreational divers but thought there may be some good resources here.

There were two divers who died in the California Aqueduct in Los Banos Feb 2007. They were doing some kind of maintenance. They were sucked into the grate in front of the only pump that was scheduled to be running during the maintenance. They weren't supposed to be in that area. The dive tender noticed that there was a problem too late. Visibility was zero. They were using recreational dive gear when they should have probably been using commercial-level dive gear (i.e. hard hats, ropes, etc.) with surface-supplied air.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070210/news_1n10divers.html

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6133809

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=6102127

http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/dive_exh/DiveEx-h.pdf

Since this was an accident involving a water district municipality, it goes directly to your purpose. This was big, big news in California when it happened. If you have access to Lexis/Nexis, you should be able to get more information on this story and what safety measures were subsequently employed. One of the links above, OSHA rep was interviewed. I believe litigation on behalf of the families is pending. When you see the videos - it will make your skin crawl. It took more than 2 hours before anyone even got in the water to look for them.

Here is the original discussion regarding this accident:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pu...35-divers-killed-inspecting-intake-pipes.html

You will notice there is an entire forum dedicated to public safety divers:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/public-safety-diverrs

 

[Thalassamania]

Just a note: Commercial divers who do inspections and maintenance are not Public Safety Divers.

 

[Rick Murchison]

A friend of mine drowned while cleaning his pond on Scuba in six feet of water. We suspect a stroke but don't know for sure.
Rick

 

[mikeyjoe]

This is a long story,but bear with me as I feel there are valuable lessons learned. This was told to me by someone who knows the father of the deceased diver - the father was present (as you will see) and told all the facts to my friend.

This incident occurred this summer off the coast of British Columbia. Mom and Dad are relatively experienced divers - I do not know level of cert or # of logged dives, but I believe it to be north of 100 dives. Mom is also a Physician. The teen aged son becomes certified recently and has a handful of dives, post Open Water course, under his belt. The family is planning a day at the beach, and the son is still a "green" diver, so Dad suggests they do a couple of easy, shallow dives in the bay. Good plan. Depth is 20' max, prob closer to 15'. Dad is comfortable in the water and they go for a shallow dive. I do not know how this happened, but they were at the surface, post dive, and with a significant distance between them. They are also about 150' + from the shore. The son is flailing at the surface and under distress, empty bc, struggling to stay above water. Mom is yelling from the shore to inflate your bc. Dad, like I say, is quite a distance away, and decides to drop his weights to get to him faster. By the way, they are both drysuit divers. By the time Dad gets there, the son is at, or approaching, the 15'-20' bottom. Dad is now very significantly positively buoyant in his drysuit without his weights and cannot descend more than a couple of feet. Mom is 150' away on the shore. 2 parents, both divers, one a physician, one literally 15' away, and they had to watch their son drown.

Sad, sad story - as a parent I don't know how I would ever recover from that.

The message - how many times do we read of a diver death that would have been very easily avoided if THEY JUST DROP THEIR WEIGHTS. 50% of the time????

New divers, hell any diver, never forget this.....