Two divers struck, killed - Isla Mujeres, Mexico

[David veitth]

Wow. That was not what I was expecting. I'm speculating from the pictures that "Mr. Tom" has a fairly deep draft. Were you and the other shallower diver pushed out of the way by the hull, while the two deeper divers were a bit deeper, so were likely drawn in by the props.

Sorry you had to witness this.

To be honest I didn’t see them get hit. Just the aftermath. It isn’t clear in my head how it happen. The first thing I saw was two mask going to the bottom. Then I noticed the dive master going down, and bringing up Tom. Then I noticed a BCD rig floating and I grab that and brought that to the boat. An I will leave it at that.

 

[Steelyeyes]

To be honest I didn’t see them get hit. Just the aftermath. It isn’t clear in my head how it happen. The first thing I saw was two mask going to the bottom. Then I noticed the dive master going down, and bringing up Tom. Then I noticed a BCD rig floating and I grab that and brought that to the boat. An I will leave it at that.

Wow. That's horrible.

 

[tursiops]

From your description I'm picturing a vertical rope anchored to the bottom with a buoy on top. The DM was shallowest, you were in the middle, and the victims deepest.

Is that accurate?

Yes that is correct.

An eye witness account. The two divers were NOT on their DSMBs, NO spools were involved, they were NOT hanging onto a trailing tag line from their boat.

 

[edwants2dive]

Wow an unfortunate, tragic and AVOIDABLE end for 2 members of our diving community. Condolences to the family and friends.
Events like this reinforce my "habit" of hyper awareness of boating traffic here in south Florida where I dive and where the only requirement to drive a boat is the money or credit card needed to rent or own it. Please fellow divers watch out for boats because they are not really watching out for us!

 

[MRadke]

Wow an unfortunate, tragic and AVOIDABLE end for 2 members of our diving community. Condolences to the family and friends.
Events like this reinforce my "habit" of hyper awareness of boating traffic here in south Florida where I dive and where the only requirement to drive a boat is the money or credit card needed to rent or own it. Please fellow divers watch out for boats because they are not really watching out for us!

The real tragedy of this incident is it wasn't an accident caused by an inattentive captain of a pleasure boat. It was what appears to be a selfish action by an impatient captain of a rival dive center trying to drop divers. Holding onto the marker bouy rope for the dive site should have been the safest place to be while in the water with other boats around.

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

Poor safety protocols on behalf of the captain and crew. It's not the first time it's happened and probably won't be the last.

 

[Belzelbub]

Poor safety protocols on behalf of the captain and crew. It's not the first time it's happened and probably won't be the last.

Poor safety protocols for sure. Also sounds like complete disregard for the divers in the water. While the captain may not have intended to cause the death of the two divers, his impatience and disregard for them directly led to their death.

I dive mostly from private boats. Sometimes, I show up to a site and there are others already there. Time to move on. In some cases, there may be a possibility to dive the same spot, but if this is done, the approach to the site is done at idle speed only.

 

[Steelyeyes]

I wonder what the legal ramification will be in Mexican court for the boat captain.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I have dived C55 a few times and the best scenario my friend and I came up with is that the Scuba III boat backed up to the buoy to offload divers from the dive deck, as many boats do. The same captain has been sited numerous times before for coming in hot and entering dive areas too fast. We speculate he was still turning screws to fight the current, backed up to the buoy to drop his divers and sucked the lower positioned divers on the rope into the props.

In my opinion, the captain should be jailed and charged with manslaughter based on his previous history of shoddy boating. Scuba III should be shut down for allowing and not correcting his behavior. A memorial should be placed at C55 letting people know that this is now hallowed ground and maybe remind people to never get complacent, even when on a line.

 

[DandyDon]

I wonder what the legal ramification will be in Mexican court for the boat captain.

In my opinion, the captain should be jailed and charged with manslaughter based on his previous history of shoddy boating. Scuba III should be shut down for allowing and not correcting his behavior. A memorial should be placed at C55 letting people know that this is now hallowed ground and maybe remind people to never get complacent, even when on a line.

Yeah, but I think the usual approach is a fine to supply money to dependents based on the accused's income. When the British singer was killed in Cozumel while saving her son from a charging boat, they quickly found the lowest-paid deckhand to take the blame.
Excerpting from Kirsty MacColl - Wikipedia

The powerboat involved in the collision was controlled by Guillermo González Nova, multimillionaire president of the Comercial Mexicana supermarket chain, who was on board with members of his family. The boat was owned by Carlos González Nova, brother and founder of the chain. One employee of Guillermo González Nova, boathand José Cen Yam, stated that he was in control of the boat at the time of the incident.[15][16] Eyewitnesses said that Cen Yam was not at the controls and that the boat was travelling much faster than the speed of one knot that González Nova said.

Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide and was sentenced to 2 years 10 months in prison. He was allowed under Mexican law to pay a punitive fine of 1,034 pesos (about €63, £61 or US$90) in lieu of the prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay approximately US$2,150 in restitution to MacColl's family, an amount based on his wages. People who said they spoke to Cen Yam after the killing said he received money for taking the blame.