Diving fatality at Stoney Cove, UK
Steve Greenham
during the public holiday at the beginning of May. Does anyone have
further details?
Stoney Cove is a flooded quarry in Leicestershire with depths up to ~37
meters and very popular with UK divers.
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Steve Greenham sgre...@cix.compulink.co.uk
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Guy Hirson
sgre...@cix.compulink.co.uk "Steve Greenham" writes:
> I understand that a woman died at Stoney Cove Diving Centre in England
> during the public holiday at the beginning of May. Does anyone have
> further details?
>
> Stoney Cove is a flooded quarry in Leicestershire with depths up to ~37
> meters and very popular with UK divers.
From the report I read, she was experienced and a safe diver. No-one really
knows what happened - an investigation is under way. Her buddy popped to
the surface and shouted she was down under and out of air. They found her
a few minutes later and were unable to resuscitate her. That's all I know.
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Guy Hirson - Irdeto ___ Oo
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Steve Greenham
If you comment to this posting please bear in mind that at least one of
Adele Barry's friends reads this newsgroup and is still, understandably,
very distressed by her death.
I quote:
DIVER DIES AT STONEY
An 18 year old woman died at Stoney Cove, Leicestershire in April after
she got into difficulties during a deep dive.
Adele Barry, of Bedford, was diving with a fellow member of Bedford BSAC
in 35 m of water when the incident occurred. Her partner surfaced alone,
shouting that he had lost his buddy and she had run out of air.
Within 10 minutes a rescue team had located Miss Barry on the bottom of
the inland dive site, where conditions on the day were described as
moderately bright with underwater visibility of about 5m.
Resuscitation attempts were made aboard the powered rescue boat and
ashore until an ambulance arrived, but Miss Barry was certified dead on
arrival at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
An inquest into her death will be held by Leicester City and South
Leicestershire Coroners.
Adele Barry was studying oceanography at Plymouth University and had
taken up diving as an integral part of her interest in the marine world.
She had been diving for several years and was close to attaining the BSAC
Dive Leader qualification.
Peter Milton, Chairman of Bedford BSAC, expressed the shock and sadness
of fellow branch members. He said: "Adele was popular with everyone as a
happy, kind and confident young woman.
"As a diver she always did everything by the book. She was one of the
most careful divers in the branch."
Adele Barry is the eigth diver in 9 years to die at Stoney Cove.
Defending the site's record, Cove director Martin Woodward said: "Each
year we have around 40,000 people through here, carrying out about
100,000 training and recreational dives.
"When we have an incident like this, it is a very soul-searching time. We
have examined our safety arrangements, which include a rescue boat and
hyperbaric chamber, and believe that we do all we can to prevent
accidents.
"Unfortunately you can never completely look after people who, once in
the water, are under their own control."
Sean SanRomani
Steve Greenham <sgre...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:
>The incident is reported in the current Diving magazine (June 94, p53).
>If you comment to this posting please bear in mind that at least one of
>Adele Barry's friends reads this newsgroup and is still, understandably,
>very distressed by her death.
>
>I quote:
>shouting that he had lost his buddy and she had run out of air.
I hope not to increase the grief, however I have a question, and I'm sure it
has been asked, at least I would hope so. If the dive partner had lost his
buddy, how would he know that she had run out of air? I would think that
if one knows their partner is out of air, then they would know where their
partner is, and they would be able to make an alternate air source ascent of
some kind.
In anycase, this is a very unfortunate incident.
-sean
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Steve Greenham
the tanks empty, and that the buddy pair became separated during the
assisted ascent.
Vis at Stoney can be very low. Picture the scene; 2m Visibility, 6 deg C
water temperature, divers in dry suits and gloves difficult to get a grip
on each other, ascending from 37m, air sharing, trying to control
buoyancy and rate of ascent when you aren't even sure you are the right
way up, and don't have a free hand to look at your depth gauge...
It's hard enough in training when you can psyche yourself up, but if your
reg suddenly free flows at that depth and it becomes a real emergency I
should think it is all too easy to get separated in the confusion.
Mike Salmon
>If you comment to this posting please bear in mind that at least one of
>Adele Barry's friends reads this newsgroup and is still, understandably,
>very distressed by her death.
My condolences to her family and friends. It distresses everyone to hear of a
diving fatality, especially one so close to home. My club (University of East
Anglia, BS-AC 901) frequently dives at Stoney and the similar Gildenburgh,
both of which have had a number of fatalities. Neither site skimps on safety
precautions: they just have a lot of divers using them.
Any discussion of this must be to try to ascertain what went wrong to allow us
to learn from it. I'm UEA's Training Officer and I'm "close to attaining Dive
Leader" so I feel a particularly keen interest in this case. If Adele's friend
on rec.scuba feels able to, I for one would be grateful for information about
the incident and Adele's background and training.
>Adele Barry, of Bedford, was diving with a fellow member of Bedford BSAC
>in 35 m of water when the incident occurred. Her partner surfaced alone,
>shouting that he had lost his buddy and she had run out of air.
Presumably, she either exhausted the cylinder or something happened to her
gear. Was a reserve limit set by the Dive Marshall? Was it cold enough to
freeze the reg? Any indication of equipment failure?
They were presumably sharing air at some point. Did her buddy have an
octopus or were they buddy breathing?
They then presumably got separated. How does Bedford teach to hold your
buddy during an emergency ascent? Do people practise it regularly on real
dives?
What was her recent diving experience? Over winter it's not unusual to
leave a long stretch between dives, and practice is lost. Did she build up to
the 35m dive over a succession of shallower dives?
>Within 10 minutes a rescue team had located Miss Barry on the bottom of
>the inland dive site, where conditions on the day were described as
>moderately bright with underwater visibility of about 5m.
We put the fear of god into our trainees about ascending too rapidly.
Sometimes I worry that, come to the crunch, they would instinctively stay at
depth when the only real option is a free ascent.
>Resuscitation attempts were made aboard the powered rescue boat and
>ashore until an ambulance arrived, but Miss Barry was certified dead on
>arrival at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Although a lot of emphasis is (rightly) placed on CPR techniques in a diving
rescue, it should be remembered that, even in the optimum conditions of a
hospital, most resuscitations fail. Those involved in the rescue should not
inflict the "maybe I could have done more" guilt upon themselves. None of us
can do more than try.
>"As a diver she always did everything by the book. She was one of the
>most careful divers in the branch."
The book is still being written. We need to keep refining it.
mike.
_____________________________________________________________________
Mike Salmon, Climatic Research Unit, |
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK | "No! The _other_ starboard!"
m.sa...@uea.ac.uk +44-603-592875 |
Brian Taylor
}Vis at Stoney can be very low. Picture the scene; 2m Visibility, 6 }deg C
}water temperature, divers in dry suits and gloves difficult to get }a grip
Steve's point about the difference in a training exercise rescue and the real thing is also well made.
Any attempt for us to understand what went on is speculation - I doubt if Adele's buddy even knows.
Brian
J Shepherd
Mike's (?) point about 'fear of god' and high speed ascents has
been brought up before. Every year the BSAC incident report has a number
of casualties in the fatalities column who would possibly be in the DCS
column if they weren't found with their weightbelts on, on the bottom.
Last thought - go up.
That's all very well to say here on the net, but a different
kettle of fish in Stoney. Hence we all retrain, and practise.
MMy thoughts are with Adele's club and family.
Jason.