Posted by Ken Kurtis on August 01, 2001 at 01:03:40:
In light of the discussion we had last week about the number of deaths at Casino Point, I called Karl Huggins, director of the Catalina Chamber, for his perspective. He got back to me today with the following information from his records.
From January 1995 through October 2000, almost a 6-year period, the Catalina Chamber has seen 153 divers (not all are treated). Of that number, 19 (12%) over the 6-year period have been fatalities, or roughly 3 per year.
Karl said he had mentioned to one the Sheriff's ESD people (they're the division that investigates all scuba fatalities), the comment relayed here on the BBS that an instructor in Avalon claimed that there had been 17 fatalities at Casino Point in the last 3½ years. The shortened version of the ESD response to that figure was, "No way."
(I'm going to see if the Avalon Sheriff's Department can give me some numbers and if I get them, I'll post them here.)
Karl's records couldn't give us a better answer and he didn't want to hazard just a guess but off the top of my head, I remember the following recent ones:
1. DM/AI helping do intro/resort dives goes off to do a solo dive between escorts and doesn't come back, and is found about a week later on the bottom near the Sujack.
2. Guy diving just outside the Park retreiving anchors somehow gets seperated from his BC, which floats to the surface without him and he is found on the bottom.
3. Gail Garcia goes diving with three friends after a two-year hiatus, has mask problems underwater, attempts a normal ascent with her buddy, and loses consciousness somewhere near the surface, sinks back down and is found unconscious and not breathing on the bottom.
4. Karl also recalled a death of a non-certified diver during an intro/resort guided dive. I vaguely recall the accident but don't rember if the victim got sperated from the group, or panicked and bolted for the surface.
The interesting thing to note here is that none of these involved students-in-training. (If anyone knows of an example, please post it.) These were all certified divers and, in the first two cases, highly experienced ones to boot.
Don't know that this "proves" anything one way or the other (nor is it meant to) but is posted here by me merely to make sure that we've got a good basis of information upon which to base any further discussions/comments.
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, Ca.