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I just recieved a Letter from Steve Gerrard south of the border. The
letter raeds as follows:
A Senseless Tragedy
A week ago on Thursday, Aug. 17th....... Three Open Water Divers
Drowned at the Cenote Temple of Dome. If there was ever a criminal act
performed in diving, this was it. It began through a divestore in
Cozumel called Echo Divers, owned by a Mexican couple from Mexico
City. For whatever reasons, they decided to organize a dive group to
go to the mainland and dive a few cenotes. The Cenotes of the
Akumal-Tulum area are becoming more and more popular. They hired an
independent OW instructor- a Mexican named Luis. He told the owners
that he knew the cenotes located near Tulum and would take them to two
of his favorites. So, a trip was formed taking with thme five diving
customers. Three Dutch people, one american girl and an Italian. They
took the ferry from Cozumel to Playa Del Carmen and hired "Taxi's" to
take them first to the Grand Cenote. There they performed their first
dive. The divestore owner - George and his wife were part of this
eight person group. The second dive they moved down the road 2 1/2
kilometers to the Cenote Temple of Doom. Apparently, the instructor
Luis led the group of eight from the cavern zone into the popular cave
passage known as the Modonna Passage. Luis was first with George
taking the eight position. To enter this tunnel you pass TWO WARNING
SIGNS. The NACD STOP SIGN and the PADI GRIM REAPER SIGN which clearly
states "PRE surface. Luis continued leading the group without knowing
this. Apparently, he never looked behind to check on the fellow divers
for many, many minutes. When he did turnaround, he found half his team
missing. Swimming back to the cavern zone, he found two people out of
air and one very low. He found George at the surface and traded tanks
because Luis was very low. Luis went back into the cave passage and
found George"s wife "out of air" but still alive. Was able to get her
to the surface and begin CPR. The American girl was dead and one of
the Dutch men was dead in the cave passage. Luis pulled their bodies
to the surface. The got George's wife to the Red Cross station in
Tulum but she finally died. THREE DEAD PEOPLE. I'm sure there is more
to this and I will continue to gather FACTS. This was First Degree
Manslaughter. German Mendoza tried very hard to have Luis thrown in
jail. This tragedy caused a BIG uproar up & down the coast in Cozumel.
Last night we had a hugh meeting in Playa Del Carmen at the
Continental Hotel with representatives from all the divestores. An
Association is being formed with the Policies and Safty of diving the
Cenotes.
The letter goes on to say a few other things, but I though I'd give
you the details.
BARRY
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