Since Jane's death, and the discussion of what went wrong, I have gotten
tremendous response from other IANTD instructors.   The VAST majority of
them were shocked to hear about the practices Derrick had followed, leading
up to the student death.

From the responses, a few things are becoming much clearer:

1.    Derrick does not seem to represent IANTD instructors---none will stick
up for his procedures and conduct, and few would consider allowing him to
teach with them. Most feel he should never teach technical diving again.
Many feel he should never teach any diving ever again.

2. The absence of proper bottle markings, and instructor attentiveness of
student gas switches, is  among the most negligent of Derrick's procedures,
and an area where he diverges far from the norm among IANTD instructors.
While many IANTD instructors have not yet implemented the proper dedicated
and stenciled tanks--indicating MOD in huge letters for all to see, all I
have heard from would have been watching her closely for gas switch
performance---this alone would have signaled to any other instructor that
Jane was in a life threatening situation, and this realization would have
made saving her a simple matter.

3.  Most other IANTD instructors have said that they would have done many
more training dives in 130 feet or less environment, prior to the 300 foot
attempt.  Again, this relates to Derrick's indifference to the value of a
human life, and his complete want of care.

4.   This issue should NOT be about civil liability---we should not allow
this to be a meaningless lawsuit which establishes only frivolous  income
for some attorneys.
This case must become a  CRIMINAL TRIAL. Certainly, if Derrick gets
convicted of  Manslaughter by culpable negligence, his chances of jail time
are slim----the real NEED for this is to establish a legal  precedent on
instructor negligence for the first time.  This is necessary in order to
prevent instructor trainers from improperly certifying dangerously
unqualified people as technical diving instructors,  AND it is essential to
prevent the exisitng body of dangerously bad  technical diving instructors,
from engaging in MORE,   clearly negligent behavior---now they would fear
criminal prosecution for it, and they would not allow money hunger to
control their actions so completely.


This coming week I will commit time to explaining things to the
investigators and others who would be involved in prosecuting Derrick, if
this goes to a criminal  trial.  Again, this is not about forcing Derrick
into jail, this is about saving  future lives, by creating   a legal
precedent, that will be a powerful incentive to prevent the gross
negligence, and the culpable negligence, that  I believe just occurred in
the death of Jane Orenstein. This appears to be far from a training agency
issue----this must be an individual issue, where the grossly  negligent
instructor must face the music themselves.  If the negligent instructor gets
to hide behind an agency, it can do nothing but prevent  constructive future
actions.

I urge many others to come forward, and explain this position to the
investigators as well. Particularly, other IANTD instructors....you guys
have every reason to do this----as I have always said, there are many
exceptionally good IANTD instructors...what better way to deal with this
tragedy, than to hit the nail on the head---to point out that this was NOT
an agency mistake, but that it was an individual, who acted not as a
representative of IANTD, but rather, as an individual who acted
criminally---with NOTHING in common with IANTD or any other training
organization.
Derrick's placing this girl in a 300 foot deep water column, without
sufficient skill, without the proper gear configuration, with much
additional gear that task loaded and CO2 loaded her horribly, and his
criminal lack of instructor attentiveness to her gas switches and subsequent
emergency and then her slowly evolving final trip to the bottom which he
watched , yet did nothing----this was the act of an individual, a
negligently  criminal act of an individual, NOT of IANTD.  Don't let the
public be confused by this. You guys would NOT have done what he did. Don't
let the law and the public think it is any more likely IANTD instructor in
general, would have done what he did. Right now, the public is thinking,
"yea, deep diving is a dangerous activity...maybe people should not dive
deep"....This is a dangerous misperception.
 I believe Derrick's  actions to be  cowardly and criminally negligent, and
we need the public and the legal system to understand this was not part of
any accepted agency behavior.  You guys owe this to yourselves for the care
you have taken in creating your own safety in student instruction, for the
respect you deserve for what you have done,  and you owe it to the public,
so they understand that this death did NOT occur because of any inherent
dangers in deep diving----the public needs to understand that it would be
protected by legal actions from behavior like Derrick's in the future. Your
profession NEEDS this. Diving, as an industry, needs this.
Regards,
DanVolker
South Florida Dive Journal
www.sfdj.com



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