105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14511612

SCUBA,DIVING,INEXPERIENCE,DROWN,UNTRAINED,DIVER,WATER

Event
SCUBA,DIVING,INEXPERIENCE,DROWN,UNTRAINED,DIVER,WATER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14511612
Report ID
625400

Event description

SCUBA DIVER DROWNED WHEN AIR SUPPLY RAN OUT

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, HIS EMPLOYER (A CERTIFIED DIVER), AND ONE OTHER DIVER WERE DIVING I N A GOLF COURSE WATER TRAP TO RECOVER LOST GOLF BALLS. THE WATER TRAP WAS ABOUT 175 FEET ACROSS AND 12 TO 16 FEET IN DEPTH. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS A NOVICE DIVER, WORK ING FOR 2 WEEKS AS A SCUBA AND HOOKA DIVER WITHOUT ANY MEDICAL EVALUATION OR NEC ESSARY TRAINING. HE LACKED THE KNOWLEDGE TO PROPERLY MONITOR HIS AIR SUPPLY, OR TO INFLATE HIS BOUANCY VEST AND DETACH HIS WEIGHT BELT IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY. ALL THREE DIVERS WERE UNDER WATER AT THE SAME, TIME WITHOUT VISUAL CONTACT, AND WITHOUT A DIVE MASTER ON THE SURFACE FOR ASSISTANCE IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS. EMP LOYEE #1'S AIR SUPPLY RAN OUT WHILE HE WAS UNDER WATER AND HE DROWNED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 37 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    41
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    19
    Environmental factor
    15
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.