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> A question on statistics. I am probably not the most qualified person to address this (having only been with the team for two years as a support diver), so if any other team members want to jump on board here with additional corrections, then please feel free. > Just finished reading the history of the WKPP on their site, and was > very surprised to find that since 1993 they have had less than 20 > dives there, That's 20 dives in Wakulla Springs, not 20 dives in the WKP. The total number of dives in the WKP probably numbers well into the 100s (not to mention the other on-going exploration efforts at sites that are NOT in the WKP). > albeit very impressive dives technically and logistically, but in > those 20 dives, there have been 2 deaths. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no deaths of WKPP divers at Wakulla. The only deaths on "WKPP dives" were Bill McFadden (1988, Little Dismal Sink), Parker Turner (1991, Indian Springs), and Sherwood Schile (1993, Cheryl Sink). It is interesting to note that in the five year period from 1988-1993, there were three deaths on WKPP dives, but that in the five year period since 1993, there have been none. Coincidentally, the five year period since 1993 also represents the time that the current Project Director has been managing the project. You can draw your own conclusion from that. > They also list a total of 4 members that have perished while diving. Besides those mentioned above, I can think of only two other deaths of WKPP divers - Sheck Exley (1994, Zacaton), and Robbie McGuirre (1995, Thunder Hole). Neither of these divers was participating in a WKPP dive at the time of his death, and both deaths were the direct result of dive plans or procedural mistakes that deviated from standard WKPP practices (somebody please correct me if I am wrong on any of this). The Project Director has made it abundantly clear to the entire team (and as recently as two weeks ago, at our safety workshop) that we are expected to use WKPP approved procedures for ALL our dives, to avoid exactly the situation that took (in particular) McGuirre's life. You cannot use one set of procedures for your "fun" dives, and then expect to suddenly change to something different for the team dives. Or in the words of the Project Director - "you always practice in the gear that you are going to use for the game". In am personally in 100% agreement with this philosophy, and I suspect most of the other team members are as well. > This over 5% membership death rate, and over a 10% mortality rate per > dive at Wakulla. Again, no deaths have occurred at Wakulla. > I was under the impression that the group was incident free. At Wakulla, we are (with the exception of the incident involving Mike Tennant, who blacked out at depth but was revived). > Are there mitigating circumstances that the deaths are not included > in the overall picture? What deaths? > Maybe a question for their public relations and safety director to answer. All the above information is on the WKPP web page - I suggest you go back and re-read it. -JimG -- Jim Greenlee (jkg@cc*.ga*.ed*) "Can you destroy the Earth?" Instructor, College of Computing "Egad, I hope not! That's Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332 where I keep all my stuff!" -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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