You said:

>When being critical of the accident advisory chairs for the NACD and 
>the NSS-CDS keep in mind that the current chairs for both 
>organizations (myself and Jeff Bozanic for the CDS) were not in 
>these positions during the time period you are talking about. 
>
>As well, try to understand the amount of work that has to be done 
>just to collect data on one fatality. Rarely, if at all, are the 
>accident reports filled out and mailed in to the NACD (and I presume 
>the CDS?) on their own.

Ken, 

Thanks for your frank update of the Accident Files at the NACD.

I just want to make it clear that I am in no way being critical of anyone 
specific on either BOD. These are all-volunteer organizations (with the 
exception of the CDS Manager position which is paid) and I know from 
first hand experience both in the past with other groups and with the CDS 
that these jobs are often thankless, full of responsibility often with 
little or no promised support, subject to blanket, often ignorant 
criticisms and VERY short on perks! So, I certainly honor those who 
choose to serve and who try to make a difference.

My feeling is that regardless of the reasons, it is time to get this 
done, it's time to make this a focus once again and bring it back to the 
forefront of divers-in-training as we all are.

Complacency seems to be one of the hardest things to deal with as divers 
get more and more dives with greater technical challenges under their 
belts. Complacency comes with many activities and Sheck Exley was right 
to recognize this as a problem of divers in general and cavers in 
particular in his forword to "A BLUEPRINT FOR SURVIVAL":

"By chance I stopped at a rest area in Tennessee and noticed gruesome 
pictures of automobile accidents and victims, posted there by the state 
highway patrol." "As a driver I knew that high speed on the highway could 
be hazardous, but not until I was reminded of this by the accident photos 
did I choose to drive at a more reasonable speed."

As we all know, this one of the inspirations for Accident Analysis, a 
methodology that has certainly saved lives and could do so again if we 
are willing to make the effort.

This is something that needs to be addressed ASAP. As a member of both 
the NACD and the NSS-CDS I feel this is something that both groups should 
be addressing, in cooperation. It is too important to let agency bias 
split the effort. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to 
help with your research at the NACD. I've contacted John Crea, the CDS 
accident file keeper already as well as key members of the safety 
committees.

Cave divers are a pretty inert group sometimes, perhaps that's as it 
should be, given what we do for recreation. But changes for the good 
should be embraced by all regardless of agency, personality or bias.



Later,

JoeL
--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]