I received this e-mail from a friend who frequents the bridge this evening. Just wanted to share, and urge you all to "BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!!"
Hi divers,
I'm writing to everyone I know who dives at PFP about what could have been a terrible tragedy at the park today. Catherine, a member of our 4-person dive team was struck by a boat during our dive today. Fortunately, she seems to be ok.
I almost got nailed too, but I was able to get belly down in the sand just in the nick of time. As I did this, I was watching Kay and the prop of the boat literally came within one foot of her head. Tom was carrying a highly visible float ---the kind with the yellow inflatable ring that says 'Diver Below' and has a dive flag sticking out of the top. The four members of our team were each within 10 - 20 ft. of one another.
Do you want to know what the kicker of the whole story is? The boat that struck Catherine was a Sheriff's Marine Unit boat. It seems like the boat was moving pretty rapidly when it went over our heads. To make a bad situation worse, when the Sheriff's Dept. sergeant was summoned, she did everything in her power to try to absolve the officer that hit Catherine, saying that Catherine hit his boat. She further tried to imply that we were in the boating channel which is an outright lie!
The point of this message is simply to warn you guys to be extra careful at the park and not to be lured into a false sense of security just because you're carrying a dive flag. You probably know this already...but I feel like I have to say something because it comes as a big shock to me that the sheriffs don't even seem to care about the laws to protect divers. Please be safe! Robyn
Hi divers,
I'm writing to everyone I know who dives at PFP about what could have been a terrible tragedy at the park today. Catherine, a member of our 4-person dive team was struck by a boat during our dive today. Fortunately, she seems to be ok.
I almost got nailed too, but I was able to get belly down in the sand just in the nick of time. As I did this, I was watching Kay and the prop of the boat literally came within one foot of her head. Tom was carrying a highly visible float ---the kind with the yellow inflatable ring that says 'Diver Below' and has a dive flag sticking out of the top. The four members of our team were each within 10 - 20 ft. of one another.
Do you want to know what the kicker of the whole story is? The boat that struck Catherine was a Sheriff's Marine Unit boat. It seems like the boat was moving pretty rapidly when it went over our heads. To make a bad situation worse, when the Sheriff's Dept. sergeant was summoned, she did everything in her power to try to absolve the officer that hit Catherine, saying that Catherine hit his boat. She further tried to imply that we were in the boating channel which is an outright lie!
The point of this message is simply to warn you guys to be extra careful at the park and not to be lured into a false sense of security just because you're carrying a dive flag. You probably know this already...but I feel like I have to say something because it comes as a big shock to me that the sheriffs don't even seem to care about the laws to protect divers. Please be safe! Robyn
