Bill, you are absolutely correct. It is amazing how often I see the same things over and over. Perhaps someone will learn from this, but it is, as with most of my cases, a dammed expensive lesson. Too expensive if you ask me. Alton http://www.divelawyer.com/ Bill Mee wrote: > Kirvine, > > >From everything I hear, Tony Smith was a first class well liked guy. This > only compounds the unnecessary tragedy of his death, which by all accounts > was horrible. Certainly, Tony bears some responsibility here, but I see the > real sinister culprits are still lurking out there. You can be dead on the > money sure that the root causes of his death are alive and well and ready to > claim the lives of new and innocent victims > > Lets look at the situation and you tell me where the key fits: > > 1. Diving steel tanks offshore in deep open water with a wetsuit or dive > skin. > 2. Wearing a cumberbun style tech BC which prevented the diver from > loosening the bc to reach the tank valves or get rid of his weight belt. > > Now what agency do you know of that recommends this idiotic practice or > endorses dangerous products that dont work and has several deaths which > validate the stupidity of this, yet continues to recommend it? > > Lets look at some additional facts, which are so obviously moronic, that > even the agencies would not openly endorse such nonsense: > > 3. Diving solo from a charter boat, far offshore in the Gulf Stream. > 4. Paying zero attention to diver preparation, diver fitness (physical and > mental i.e. stress level), buddy teams or dive planning. > 5. Paying zero attention to diver condition following initial water entry > (i.e. give ok sign on surface before descent), where most problems occur. > 6. No emergency response plan. > > If dive charter boat captains think that they have no responsibility to > their paying customers and there role is no more or no less than simply a > seagoing taxicab, they are sorely mistaken. I suggest they only ask Alton > Hall (i.e ahall@di*.co*) just how much their excuses will hold up in > court in light of the gross negligence described in items 3,4,5,6. > Completely aside from the issue of civil liability this dangerous level of > negligence is morally and ethically wrong and borders on criminal > irresponsibility. On top flight charter boats, such as the Wahoo (ask > captain Jan) Tony would have received the sort of attention from the crew, > prior to his getting in the water to at least have averted his gas being > turned off. Tony was obviously so stressed out, either from the sea > conditions, lack of sleep, unfamiliarity with the non drysuit scenario, etc. > that he totally forgot to deal with the most obvious of pre dive > preparations. There appears to have been a huge amount of pressure to be > first in the water and down on the wreck, for whatever reason I have no > idea, and this compounded the stress level. Think about it. Tony was so > stressed that he forgot every basic premise of his dive training and learned > experience (and we are told that he was not new to this) > > I also smell a high degree of twelve inch dickery here. A bunch of gun > slinging every man for himself tough guys doing a work-up dive to 240. I > can just imagine the scenario. The pontification and tough talk was probably > right out of Soldier of Fortune. Nobody paying any attention to anyone > else. It was so bad that no one noticed that Tony was missing until after > the dive. Think about it. A stressed out 350 lb guy and no one notices him? > What? Wait till these boneheads actually attempt to dive to 240 you can > expect a real multiple killing. > > Each 12 la penga wanted to be first in the water to get down on the wreck > and come back with the loot (some rusted light fixture or similar heroic > junk for a coffee table). The problem is you have a lot of guys all trying > to prove something and this is a recipe for trouble and the charter boat > captain needs to be able to spot this situation and take measures to control > it. > > The sad part is that Tony was familiar with the DIR tapes, which > specifically address issues such as tank types and over weighting in open > water tech diving. He either ignored this information or was receiving > contradictory input from someone or something else. I would like to know > who or what that is, because when we do they will have to publicly explain > why they consider this bs to be right. > > We are sick of this and you have not heard the end of it. > > Bill Mee > > -----Original Message----- > From: kirvine@sa*.ne* <kirvine@sa*.ne*> > To: Cost effective home improvement <freeattic@co*.ci*.uf*.ed*> > Date: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 6:38 AM > Subject: Tony Smith Accident > > >By the way, if you ever did jump into the water without your tanks > >being turned on, the first move is ALWAYS to undo the waist buckle, and > >then go for the valves. You have no breath to waste finding out out if > >you can turn them on without them being free to move. > > > > Been there, done that courtesy of an officious boat monkee dive > >master who turned my tanks off at the back of the boat without me > >knowing. Seems right and left are well beyond dive industry > >understanding. > > > > Also, even if you checked your inflator, it can pop off. Weightbelt > >has to go in this case first, get back up and get another one . > > > > However, in the logic of DIR, the inflator is the third backup reg. > >Always be sure it breathes before geting into the water. If you check > >all three regs, it is unlikely that you will miss turned off tanks. > > > > Parker Turner, "It is the basics that keep you alive". Practice them. > > > > > >--- Freeattic list subscriptions/removals should be sent to > >--- sallot@mi*.co*. > > > > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aq*.co*'. > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aq*.co*'.
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