Posted by MHK on March 15, 2001 at 09:43:10:
In Reply to: Re: Getting a second chance...... posted by randy54 on March 14, 2001 at 19:14:54:
Randy,
You raise some fair points but with respect to both fatalities ( Mia's and the Rouses) there was a breakdown in the buddy system which I believe stems from complacency.
With respect to Mia I'm not sure what you mean by *her buddies let her*.. I see this all the time regarding experienced divers. One diver get's low on air, or get's cold or get's bored or whatever and the buddy team splits.. On our dives that would never be tolerated. When one diver calls the dive that's it, no if and's or but's about it. That kid at the rigs is a perfect example. Something wasn't right, his buddies let him ascend solo and he would up dead..
Some want to say that's bad buddying to me it doesn't matter much what it's called, the mindset and the laxidasical attitude with respect to the coordinated team approach is what is troublesome..
In the Rouses case they did many, many things wrong on that dive and that fatality could have been prevented at the surface.. The use if the right gas, as you note the fact that they weren't feeling well and pushed each other, the weather problems, the competitive spirit to be the diver's that identified the wreck.. All of these things contributed to the fatality, and even after all of that they really weren't a buddy system, the minutethe son went inside the wreck solo while his father ( by pre-arangement) stayed outside the buddy system no longer exsisted...
My point with respect to my initial post was that for whatever reason diver's refuse to look at the lessons left behind from fatalities. If you get a chance read Sheck Exley's book about the blueprint for survival. The cave diving community spends a great deal of time analyzing fatalities to see what can be learned from the accidents. This list spends the same amount of energy denying the events that lead to the accident..
As you note, even if we have different points of view, the issues are atleast getting aired.. As for keeping up the fight, I think you can figure out it isn't in my nature to shy away so I'll stay around ;-)
Later