| I'm always a bit suspicious of nearly all pushing for more rules and regulations, but I'll content myself with a couple of observations on two scenarious raised by others. I'm not a hugely experience diver compared to some here, but just from thinking this through a bit...
(1) What happens if the skipper has a heart attack (or falls over the side having a pee, or whatever reason is incapacitated...).
Basically this only matters whilst every diver is still in the water AND all divers subsequently surface a long swim way away from the boat - with "a long swim away" being a weather / current dependant. Time window for this is perhaps 45 minutes "typically". Any longer window, and some divers may not yet have gone in, or the first lot may have started coming out. I am assuming that any diver still on board would be able to drive the boat and / or use the radio after a fashion.
Do bus or lorry drivers have a backup driver in case they have a hear attack whilst driving down the motorway ? Or car drivers for that matter? And if they do, are they practised enough to climb across into the driver's seat before the vehicle crashes. I've yet to see a road vehicle with a co-driver position equiped with its own steering wheel and pedals. Even driving less vehicles only have an extra brake pedal if I remember correctly. People drive vehicles all day at a stretch, and the consequences of, say a heart attack are likley to be instantly catastrophic to perhaps 40 passengers, or other road users. Why worry for the far less catastrophic case of boat driving?
In summary, though the incapacited skipper scenario could happen, it is hardly a cause for great concern. And even if it was, then just keeping a diver on board during the cross-over would solve, and even then, only bother for the small minority of boatmen whose health is of such a poor standard that they are banned from driving a car say.
(2) lone diver surfaces unconcious or otherwise incapacitated. Can skipper rescue him alone ?
Again, this is only a concern during the time-window when everyone's gone in, and the first diver comes up alone and uncouncious. If other divers already on boat, no need for extra person. If casualty's buddy also comes up at the same time, or soon after , then again, there's an extra person available to help. If the victim had been rescued from the deep perhaps unconcious, then he must have his rescuer with him. Is he solo diving, fair enough, but why should non-solo divers have to fund the extra crewman? Or perhaps he's inexperienced and rocketed up, in which case won't his buddy be up in a couple of minutes - and in any case, isn't the solution better training or more practice rather than extra crew? If he's an experienced and capable diver, why has he rocketed up at all? The remaining scenarious are a bit desperate - experienced diver has a bad turn underwater and is posted up to the surface by his buddy who awaits his deco stops, and no-one else is up for a bit. OK extra crew could help, but being realistic, the victim is going to be in pretty poor state here, so what are the chances of the extra crewman making a real difference to the eventual, probably sad, outcome.
The way to look at safety is focus on likely, rather than unlikely risks, and on things likely to help such as avoiding the accident in the first place.
Hywel  |