Suit filed for Carbon Monoxide fatality - Washington state

[Wookie]

My dimming memory tells me that a year or so ago that a boat captain lost her license because she allowed her divemaster(s) to jump in the water to try to save someone. She was supposed to have trained them to throw something first. I think this was North Carolina, South Carolina, maybe this year or last year. Wookie probably remembers the case to which I refer, I think I read about it here on scubaboard.

Virginia. 3 years ago, but she lost her license last year, and the damning issue wasn't that they didn't throw something first, it was that they didn't follow their own procedures (which was to throw something first, if you get the difference).

 

[SeahorseDeb]

What negligence do we perceive was "Bandito's?" That they didn't "supervise" the dive? Read the release of liability...they don't....they take divers to the sites and bring the diver back...and have oxygen on board..that's in our release and verbal briefing. Shoot...I don't work for them...I just use common sense. Again....what was Bandito's liability here...teach the diver/client how to read the liability seems a bit beyond their responsibility....

 

[TSandM]

Frank, you say a moored dive boat has to have someone suited up . . . what about an unmoored one? It is a rare site where our dive boats are moored. They may tie to a buoy temporarily to drop divers, but our pickups are all live boat.

I have never seen a DM suited up on a Puget Sound, San Juan Island, or Vancouver Island charter boat. And I would not get in the water here in street clothes to save someone. It would create a second victim very quickly. Our max water temp is low 50's.

 

[Aguablanco1]

It has been taught to me, over and over, that I shouldn't become the second victim. I have also been told that I should only become involved in a rescue if I feel comfortable, competent and safe. The only exception to the second point would be if I have accepted, professionally, a duty to care for an individual.
Unless there is an obligation I have no duty to offer assistance. Having said that, I personally could not stand by in an emergency and do nothing. Everyone's different.
RichH

 

[Zippsy]

The excuse of "it's our job to get them to the dive site, it's their job to dive" cuts very little mustard when someone is about to lose their livelihood.

...or their life.

 

[Wookie]

Frank, you say a moored dive boat has to have someone suited up . . . what about an unmoored one? It is a rare site where our dive boats are moored. They may tie to a buoy temporarily to drop divers, but our pickups are all live boat.

I have never seen a DM suited up on a Puget Sound, San Juan Island, or Vancouver Island charter boat. And I would not get in the water here in street clothes to save someone. It would create a second victim very quickly. Our max water temp is low 50's.

Lynne, I can only tell you what would make sense to me, but a drifting dive boat can maneuver right up next to a victim, like in a man overboard situation. Same if the boat has a chase boat, like a liveaboard might. Then thermal protection for a deckhand might not play into the situation, because we're in Row, not go.

 

[Freewillow]

CO intoxication at the surface, I do not get it :depressed:. When I am at the surface, I do not inhale from my regulator, except in very choppy seas :cool2:.

 

[kwinter]

I go with Frank in this one and I'm surprised at some of the other responses. The captain and crew are responsible for the safety of their passengers, even in a "water taxi." The South Korean ferry disaster. The Costa Concordia. And the Miss Lindsey. If you're not suited up in exposure protection, that's up to you. But you are still responsible for rescue, so expect to be cold. Throw, tow, row, then go. There is always the possibility that you must go in. Becky's big issue on the Lindsey was that protocol was not followed. Crew was not properly trained. No one threw anything. The crew that jumped in did not bring flotation for the victim, or even enough for himself. The list goes on. The punishment was severe, but the faults were real. Crew on a boat taking passengers have real responsibilities. It is absolutely NOT acceptable to stand on deck unprepared to go in the water for rescue and take the attitude that it is all up to the instructor or other passengers in the water.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[Wookie]

Lynne, I can only tell you what would make sense to me, but a drifting dive boat can maneuver right up next to a victim, like in a man overboard situation. Same if the boat has a chase boat, like a liveaboard might. Then thermal protection for a deckhand might not play into the situation, because we're in Row, not go.

Lynne, I wanted to come back and expound on this some more. I notice that there are a very few skippers out there who will jump up and say that they are merely a water taxi, that they have no duty of care to the diver once they are off the boat. No doubt, there are some who feel this way, but the vast majority of the folks who proclaim loudly "we are just transport" are the divemasters on the boat, and we've already established that their opinions don't mean much.

I can tell you from experience that the worst feeling in the world is to be standing on the deck of your boat and know someone needs help and there is nothing you can do for them. There may be a few reasons there is nothing you can do, including the deckhand is already out on a rescue, the outboard won't start, or you have divers in the water and can't move the big boat.

Our most recent fatality (which was a number of years ago) I had a deceased rebreather diver, his instructor, and the instructors instructor candidate. The student was dead, the instructor trainer was bent, and the instructor candidate was unknown condition. Mel was out in the chase boat with them, but couldn't recover the body, and I had divers in deco under the boat. Nothing to do but pace.

The most dangerous for a diver is transitioning into and out of the water, that is, at the surface. You're wearing a ton of gear, you're as graceful as a manatee, and when something goes wrong, you are loath to ditch a couple of thousand dollars worth of gear, so it holds you down, maybe head under the water, maybe with no air.

An unprepared deckhand or captain can do nothing but watch helplessly while the diver sorts himself out, or his buddy does so, or he drowns. In this case, it appears that he drowned. The Coast Guard takes a relatively dim view of watching someone drown.

 

[TSandM]

I hope this suit doesn't follow those principles, Frank. We have very, very few dive charter boats left in Puget Sound, and this is the practice on every one of them. The Bandito boat is generally top drawer -- Rick and his crew are universally liked, know their sites well, and take good care of their divers. Losing this charter would be a huge blow to all of us in the Seattle area.