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Old 10-13-2016, 09:49 PM   #4
triponempa
internet troll
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: florida
Posts: 67
Re: Diver run over in Key West

I know the 22 year old captain who hit the dude.
These guys were shore diving (exceedingly rare here in key west)
they were also less than 200 ft from the end of the white st pier- which is a major "highway" for all the charter boats and jet ski tours that travel through that area at a high rate of speed.
It was 8 am and all the charter captains were heading out of hurricane hole marina.
Furthermore- there is no patch reef- nothing to dive in that area.
To be clear- it is definbatly the captain's fault.
But - these guys were in the worst possible place to do what they were doing.
An anbalogy I would give is" pedestrians have right of way- so cars are never allowed to hit someone- Knowing that- If I decide to look for loose change on the FL turnpike early in the morning- and I get hit by a car- It will be tragic and it will be the drivers fault automatically- but is it a surprise?
If these guys dove the same spot 100 times- they would get hit probably 10% (or more) of the time.
The patvch reef off the beach at smather's breach is loaded with short fish (about it) and it's 1.2 to 1.5 miles off the beach-( that puts these guys around a mile from any fish-) it's hard to miss and the captain's avoid that line when traveling east to west because some of the rocks are very shallow.
when I used to dive the area- tyhe biggest threat is the jet ski tours coming through at 40mph. Those people will actually come toward a dive flag to see what it is.
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