Diver lacked safety equipment

[Mr T.]

Diver lacked safety equipment

Tether, air tank not worn during pipe inspection

By Andy Reid
Staff Writer
Posted June 4 2005


Ciro Cardenas Jr. did not strap on an air tank before lowering himself into a water-filled drainage pipe Thursday, police said.

Cardenas, 29, also did not put on a mask or attach a safety line before he sank below the surface into a 36-inch diameter pipe he was checking for blockage, according to a Boca Raton police report.


Clearing the drainage line next to the Vistazo townhouse development was part of Cardenas' job. But why he risked entering the 250-foot-long pipe to a retention pond and how he got stuck and died remained the investigation's focus Friday.

Even with the correct equipment and more help, trying to swim through the drainage pipe would have been dangerous, said George Horne, who oversees dive crews for the South Florida Water Management District.

"If you put yourself in a small hole, you can't back up. ... You can't turn around," said Horne, director of operations and maintenance for the water district. "You could be in trouble."

Cardenas worked for a Lennar Corp. subcontractor at the Vistazo development, said Marshall Ames, Lennar's vice president of investor relations.

Representatives of Cardenas' employer, Shenandoah Construction, told police that entering the water-filled pipe was against company policy. They could not be reached for comment Friday, despite attempts by phone.

"There are inquiries being made into what he was doing and why he was doing it," Ames said. "At this moment we just don't have those answers."

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration planned to continue interviewing Shenandoah officials and workers before deciding whether company practices violated federal standards, OSHA representative Zachary Barnett said Friday.

"We are trying to get an idea for the scope of work being done out there ... so that we can make an assessment," Barnett said.

Cardenas, who worked for Shenandoah for five years, lowered himself into the drainage pipe in the 3900 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue about 11:30 a.m. Thursday, police said.

A vacuum truck driver working with Cardenas told police that Cardenas in the past entered pipe openings to try to break up obstructions.

The driver told police that he told Cardenas it was not necessary to enter the pipe, but Cardenas went in anyway.

Cardenas had about 20 minutes of air available.

When Cardenas didn't emerge from the water 20 minutes later, the driver called his boss and then police, according to the report.

Rescue dive crews found Cardenas 41/2 hours later lying on his side in the pipe where soot and sand had collected at both ends.

Investigators were trying to determine Friday whether Cardenas, who was wearing a wet suit, used his own air tank to check the pipe.

Using divers to check and clear drainage pipes is an accepted practice, but whether Cardenas had the proper training for such a dive was not known Friday, Barnett said.

Cardenas would have needed special training to prepare for a "penetration" dive, said dive instructor Trevor Wichman of Pura Vida Divers on Singer Island.

[Mr T.]

Construction diver dies in drainage pipe in Boca Raton

By Stephanie Slater, Dani Davies

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Friday, June 03, 2005

BOCA RATON — A 29-year-old laborer who apparently became trapped as he worked in an underground drainage pipe Thursday died inside the water-filled culvert despite the efforts of dozens of rescue workers.

Ciro Cardenas Jr.'s family watched divers and rescue crews work for nearly five hours to try to locate him in the 215-foot pipe and adjoining retention pond.



Bob Shanley/The Post

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Rescue crews stand by as divers enter the water. A co-worker said Cardenas planned a 10-minute dive, possibly to clean out the pipe.




Bob Shanley/The Post

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Divers search a retention pond Thursday at the Vistazo of Boca Raton townhouse construction site.




Bob Shanley/The Post

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Family members stand Thursday near the underground pipe where Ciro Cardenas Jr., 29, drowned. Relatives watched crews work for nearly five hours to find Cardenas, a diver for a construction company, in a 215-foot pipe and a retention pond.






"You guys gotta go," his father shouted, clapping his hands, urging divers to continue their search.

"Not my baby, not my baby," his mother cried.

At about 11:40 a.m., Cardenas, equipped with scuba gear and a wet suit, descended into the 36-inch-diameter pipe at the construction site of Vistazo of Boca Raton at Spanish River Boulevard and Northwest Fifth Avenue, Boca Raton Fire-Rescue spokesman Frank Correggio said.

A co-worker told officials Cardenas had planned a 10-minute dive, possibly to clean out the pipe. The co-worker called 911 after 20 minutes.

At 4:25 p.m., rescue workers glimpsed his lifeless feet and hands on video captured by an underwater camera they had manipulated into the pipe. He was about 26 feet in, but divers couldn't reach him because a mound of silt and sand had accumulated between Cardenas and the mouth of the pipe, according to diver Tony Ojea, a Delray Beach fire-rescue lieutenant.

Construction worker Robbie Young said he saw Cardenas just before he entered the pipe.

"He waved at me," Young said. "It was like he was telling me goodbye. He never waved at me like that."

Construction workers peered through concrete frames of the unfinished townhouses as Boca Raton police and Delray Beach fire-rescue divers searched the retention pond.

Shortly after 2 p.m., rescuers plugged the pipe at the end where it drained into the pond and pumped water from the drain entrance, a manhole in the road. Worried about the stability of the plug, they decided against sending divers into the other end.

A company called Well Cam sent the remote video camera down an 11-foot vertical portion of the pipe and then into the long horizontal portion.

Ojea, who tried for 20 minutes to reach Cardenas, said visibility was hindered by sand and silt churning in the water. "I couldn't see my gauges in front of my face," he said.

As workers drained the pond and a storm threatened, officials decided at 8:15 p.m. to retrieve Cardenas' body, which took them 16 minutes.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, investigator Anthony Campos said. The agency is investigating the safety practices of Cardenas' employer, though Campos would not name the company.

Cardenas' friends at the scene said it was Shenandoah General Construction Co. of Pompano Beach. Lennar Corp. is building the townhouses.

The agency charged Shenandoah with safety violations in 1982 after a pipeline accident killed a 24-year-old worker. The worker crawled inside to clean a drainage pipe and was overcome by methane and carbon monoxide gases.

The agency also inspected a site at 2400 W. Broward Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale in November 2001 after receiving a safety complaint about Shenandoah, area director Luis Santiago said. No citations were issued.