Too Many Diving Deaths

There have been eight diving deaths so far this year in the Florida Keys. That's eight too many. Maybe it's time for a comprehensive review of these incidents to see if dive safety can be improved, especially with some of the tourist dive operations.

We know of an incident, which, thankfully, did not end in tragedy but could have because the crew of the dive boat was not aware the amateur diver was in trouble until after the diver had been pulled to safety by the crew of a nearby boat who had heard the diver and saw that the person was in trouble. This was an incident that should not have occurred. The kind of an incident demonstrates to us that the diver should not have been in the water and the crew of the dive operation should have kept a better lookout.

Diving is a wonderful sport, but it is also more risky for the inexperienced diver. It can be risky as well for the diver operation where the crew is not paying complete attention or an operation that has insufficient crew in relation to the number of divers to do so. There is no easy fix, and there will always be mistakes.

But this year there have been too many fatalities not to take a harder look at the problem. The deaths are not the only incidents that ought to be looked at more carefully. The incidents like we described above are not isolated and should receive intensive scrutiny so such incidents don't end up in tragedy.

We hasten to add that the responsibility is not always or only on the dive operation. Some divers just shouldn't be diving, and that they get into trouble is completely their fault. Unfortunately, when they do get into trouble they put others at risk who may try to help them. That argues for better training all around and more stringent safety considerations for both divers and dive operations.