Man’s death because of ‘unsafe’ dive
A combination of unsafe diving practices contributed to the death of a man during a diving trip off the North Canterbury coast.
Neil Brookes, 58, of Rangiora, died during a scuba diving trip near Motunau Island on March 5, 2017.
A report by Coroner Marcus Elliot found the probable cause of death was drowning following a possible cerebral arterial gas embolism suffered during an outof-air ascent.
Brookes’ death was complicated by the loss of his mask and regulator, overweighting by lead and crayfish, and separation from his diving buddy.
Brookes, who had been diving for more than a decade and had done a diving course, went out for a dive on March 5 with Ffriend and neighbour Mark O’Donnell and his son Hayden O’Donnell, They and two others launched the boat at Motunau about 9.15am.
Hayden O’Donnell went diving first, followed by Brookes and Mark O’Donnell. ‘‘We were meant to stick together, but it was easy to spread apart around rocks and stuff,’’ Hayden O’Donnell said.
He said he caught some crayfish then headed back up to the surface. He was on the boat for a couple of minutes when his father popped up. They headed towards him when Brookes popped up.
David Weston, who was driving the boat, saw Brookes take his mask off after he surfaced then take the respirator out of his mouth.
‘‘Then Neil yelled out very loud. It sounded painful and was very short. It was not words, it was more of a arahh sound. He was not calling out to us.’’
Weston started up the engine and as they approached he noticed Brookes lay backwards.
‘‘His arms just went straight out sideways from his body as he went onto his back. For a short period, like seconds, he floated . . . he started sinking.’’ Brookes did not resurface. The group searched the area and made a mayday call. Nearby divers searched the water but were unable to find him.
The police national dive squad found him on the seabed, at a depth of 23.5 metres near the diving area the following day.
Constable Seda ClaytonGreene, an officer with the police national dive squad, provided a report to the coroner.
He said Brookes used some unsafe diving practices, including possibly breathing his dive cylinder empty, not wearing a watch or timepiece while diving, attaching a catch bag directly to his dive equipment and not diving with a dive buddy.