PSDarchives.standards

Standards

2-26-03

Here are some of our basic safety standards. It would be great to have a
discussion about them and others that you have that are not listed here.

Lifeguard Systems Sample Recommended Minimum Equipment and Safety Guidelines
for Standard Operating Procedures: Limited Visibility Ops

1.        A minimum operation consists of a trained team of:

·         one tethered primary diver,

·         one primary tender (who can serve as the Incident Commander),

·         one fully-dressed, tethered back up diver

·         one back up tender (who also serves as profiler),

·         and one tethered 90%-ready diver.

2.        Minimum equipment:

·         full exposure drysuit with attached dry hood, booties, and gloves
for contaminated or cold water,

·         BCD with power inflator and a minimum of 30 lbs of lift,

·         three cutting tools (with at least two shears or wire cutters) in
the golden triangle area, nothing on the legs,

·         regulator with analog gauges (depth, pressure, time), or if high
visibility than digital gauges are acceptable,

·         pony bottle with quick release harness/holder

·         downstream pony regulator with exhaust-tee removed, secured in the
golden triangle chest area with a quick-release connection and a protective
mud mouthpiece cover,

·         downstream, balanced primary regulator, with environmental
protection recommended for cold water

·         fins

·         a minimum of a 3000 psi rated 80 cuft tank with a minimum of 2800
psi,

·         if a weight belt is worn with a standard buckle the release should
be right-handed and the free webbing beyond the buckle should be 10-12
inches in length, the belt should not be obstructed from quick-release by
the buoyancy compensator or any other piece of equipment; integrated weights
are strongly not recommended. If IW are used, then place half the weight on
a weight belt.

·         a positive-pressure full face mask or full head dress as needed
for contaminated water, with a standard mask in the BCD pocket,

·         a full face mask block with a quick-release connection to the pony
bottle is recommended for contaminated or cold water,

·         a chest diving harness for tethered diving,

·         distance-marked tether line (3/8" floating line) for tethered
diving

·         locking carabiners

·         tenders wear appropriate personal flotation devices, protection
equipment, and gloves.

3.        Maximum diving depth of 50 feet with a possible additional
ten-foot extension as dictated by the Officer in Charge

4.        Maximum diving time of 20 minutes with a possible five-minute
extension as dictated by the Officer in Charge.

5.        Minimum air to be back on shore/boat is 1000 psi in an 80-cuft
cylinder.

6.        The maximum distance out on a tether line is 125 feet.

7.        The maximum current for a shore based operation is .5 knots, the
maximum current for divers not trained and certified as moving water divers,
is 1. 5 knots.

8.        The following minimum information should be logged for every
subsurface operation in each diver's logbook:

·         total psi used,

·         total time diving and total in-water time

·         blood pressure before and after dive

·         depth, current, other conditions

·         surface air consumption rate

·         respirations per minute (recorded every 5 minutes)

·         weight, suit, cylinder used

·         tender name, signature

9.       Any diver has the right to say "no" to any operation for any reason
at any time

10.     Rescue time is anything up to 70 minutes from the time of the call.

11.     Risk/Benefit analysis must be done prior to making plan of action.

12.     The profiler documents on the profile map, every movement of the
diver and log book information.

13.     Divers must maintain a log showing a minimum of ten openwater dives
annually, preferably in local conditions during drills or training. Tenders
and divers must serve as both primary and back up tenders a minimum of six
times each annually.

14.     Divers and tenders must have certification from training for the job
at hand (i.e. underwater vehicle extrication, ice diving rescue/recovery,
drysuit and full face mask, moving water, evidence handling, etc.) and must
attend a training program at least once every two years, in addition to
drills.

15.     A minimum of 6 drills or training sessions annually, with 12
sessions preferred

16.     Post-operation, divers and tenders are responsible for making sure
the scene is safe to leave, and all equipment is cleaned, checked, and
properly stored.

Andrea Zaferes
Lifeguard Systems & RIPTIDE

2-26-03

I was curious, being what we do (and sorry if this sounds like advertising), about logging. Your SOP has divers keeping their logs. Don't/shouldn't teams maintain comprehensive logs of divers training, call outs and other team related activities?

Although there are other benefits for divers when everything is tracked by the team (in addition to, not in lieu of keeping their own records), the team has to try and get any records not in their possession in the case of legal action. The single anecdote I have about this was a lost diver up in Canada. Although the diver had the necessary training and experience for an op, the only records were in the divers log book. A suit by the surviving family alleged the diver had neither enough experience nor appropriate training. The family did not supply the log book for what ever reason and subsequently awarded damages as the team was unable to prove the divers qualifications.

One of the responsibilities of a team is to safeguard the members health and safety, as well as the team and community from unjustified legal action and I would think that centralized record keeping would be key to that.

Properly organized and maintained, team based recorkeeping (paper or pc) protects divers, teams and the community.

Do the majority of teams leave the recordkeeping to the divers, share responsibility with the divers, or take full responsibility for the records?

And should the record keeping portion of the SOP be as detailed as any other part of the SOP?

If any team has detailed record keeping SOPs, I would love to see them.

Thanks!
Alex Wolff
Technical Director
Sea Wolff Diving

2-27-03

My concerns... No job is ever standard in my experiences.. (but enough of that..)

Section 1: Recommend Safety Diver be more experienced than the Primary Diver... because if the 1st diver gets in a jam.. you don't want a less experienced diver coming to help a more experienced diver that couldn't help himself.

Section 2: Pony Bottle . to pass off a pony bottle from the Safety Diver to the Primary Diver, with the bottle mounted behind you to your 80 cuft tank.. how do you release it? Why isn't the pony attached to your front or side for ease of passing it off? No discussion of weight harnesses?? We use 2 styles of weight harness.. DUI and a Velcro pouch system. Nice to get you weight off your hips.. and one pull drops half, another pull drops the rest.. Also, no mention of duct taping the locking carabineers on the back of the harness?

Section 3: How do you know your depth in "NO VISIBILITY" diving? you limit to 50 feet.

Section 10: Rescue Time 70 post time of call? What if your called 2 hours or more after the person was last seen going under?

The Rest seem ok if time permits..

This is just my opinion.... I could be wrong...

Shawn L. Connery

Captain

Mystic Island Vol. Fire Co. #1

Little Egg Harbor Fire District #2

2-27-03

These sound good for Diving, but what about Surface
Rescues............ Ice Rescue..........Boat Rescue ............and or PWC
Rescues.

I never see anything on S.O.G. or S.O.P.'s on these subject. Just a
thought

Scott
S.H.F.D.

2-28-03

This is also what my department is having a great deal of pain with, SOP's
for
PWC rescue, water/marine small boat or rescue vessel. Types of calls are
boating or jetski accidents, large area search for a missing person, boater,
jumper, drowning....

Chris Chernega
Raritan Regional Response Team
South River Rescue Squad

2-28-03

One more thing that I would also like to mention is that everybody on my team
has min US coast guard boating safety certificate, Small boat/ vessel PWC
level
1 Technician, Surface Ice Rescue Level 1 Technician, Surface Ice Level 2
technician.
NJ Marine State Police Boating Card as well. Our department has gone from 3
water calls a year to 41 due to 9/11. The NJ State Police Marine Division and
the US
coast Guard has had to deal with added securities and some cutters have been
moved to the Persian Gulf. The SOP's we have in place now are just riding
requirements
needed to respond with the Kawasaki 1100 ski and our 17 foot 120hp boat. If
there
is a call certified water personal who are also EMT's respond first. We also
besides
getting called out for missing/drowings, are now getting calls for flood
response
and evacuation along with getting reports of stranded boaters and boats
taking on water. I need help with establishing a 3-4 man crew on the boat and
establishing
their responsibilities and duties while on the call or out on the boat in
general. We have no SOP's for our jetski with sled. Should this respond
first or should the boat?
In adding requirements to the jetski shouldn't there be a swim test. We due
have
cascade water rescue helmets, type III and Type IV life jackets with water
activated strobes and whistles. We also have all of the ice rescue equipment
such as the baileys suits, Type IV mustang work suits. It's just putting all
of the equipment in a required form. Also shouldn't blood pressures be
taking upon and exiting the ice/cold water rescues. I please need help in
establishing SOG's for ICE/Cold Water, due to the fact I have none. Such as
Jobs of the observer, tenders, lineman and command. Physical
fitness and a swim test should be a factor I'm guessing. So far I have come
up with
pre-op and post-op maintenance check off sheets, and have obtained a separate
call report sheet for boating accidents, ice rescue, disabled boater, body
recovery,
with boxes to mark off weather and a diagram of a boat. We use this in
addition to our BLS reports sheets. Like I had stated before we have no
SOG's on jetski rescues or patrol. My captain feels there is no need to put
any medical equipment
on the ski. I would at least carry a bag valve mask and some trauma dressings
in a
waterproof bag. During the day time the kids (18-22) can hook up the jet ski
to the first responder car we have; since they cannot drive the big rescue
truck and manpower is horrible. It was my idea to get theKawasakii 1100
jetski in the first place for 1) there are not many drivers around during the
day 2) The younger members are certified and can use the jetski as a first
responder/communications
out there. We are always the first on seen in the raritan bay due to the fact
the
state marine police come out of port Newark or the coast guard out at sandy
hook.
Now like I said since 9/11 they have turned more rescues to us. Since I want
to use the jetski with sled as a first responder I think it should carry a
first responder kit in one of those waterproof white water river bags. At
least a bag valve mask. Right now
when there is a call it's a charlie foxtot. We respond and launch in the
Raritain River,
NJ. It has over a 4 (four) foot tidal change and the Raritan Bay. WE did
flood evacuations for 3 days straight back in December 1999. The water was
6-13 feet
above the neighborhood. Our jetski saved the day because we were able to
drive it up to front doors and drive over cars because it has no prop. Any
help from you guys and gals out there we be very much greatly appreciated.
1) ICE RESCUE PERSON or DOG through the ICE ----need SOG's
2) Small boat/vessel positions ex. operator-communications BLS crew/spotter
or some one in charge of the gas tanks and motor, search light operator we
have 4
3) PWC rescue operations-min crew what equipment should be carried on it
right now we have a fire extinguisher, a paddle, 100ft of toe line, can of
single horn
and ariel flares, extra oil. But the SOG's doesn't state what to due when
responding down to the station-butch stated that all equipment be started and
flushed prior to leaving the station prior to leaving for an emergency call.
We are a 100% volunteer department and I can use any advise on
stuff to due rescues more disciplined and safety-again as stated before we
have no rescue SOG's only the riding requirements to ride the boat and the
ski. We have nothing on large area search or flood evacuation plans. All we
have is all of the
required courses all taught by Butch and Andrea. Our town does not allow us
to train
on our own ponds and lakes due to insurance's reasons. So the few dedicated
members takes surface ice every year or travel for the PWC courses and use
them as our drills. The members have to pay for these courses themselves.
Right now we are being overwhelmed by marine rescues; that a mistake or
accident is bound to happen when there is an absence of SOG's for the
different types of water rescues.
The only thing we do not have calls for or training is swift water.

Christopher Chernega
South River Rescue Squad
Raritan Regional Response Team (Water Rescue Team)
Station 5
South River, New Jersey (Middlesex County) Washington Canal-Raritan River

                Raritan Bay extending out to Staten Island NY/ Sandy Hook

2-28-03

Section 2: Pony Bottle . to pass off a pony bottle from the Safety Diver to the Primary Diver, with the bottle mounted behind you to your 80 cuft tank.. how do you release it? The signals that the distressed diver gives the tender should give you (the back up diver) an ideal of what kind of situation he is in. To pass off the pony bottle, that comes with practice, practice, practice...

Why isn't the pony attached to your front or side for ease of passing it off? We have never discussed this set up, but if the primary diver is low on air when the back up reaches him the back up diver passes his pony to the primary and then returns to the surface and gets the contingency bottle for the distressed diver. After the primary has air the back up diver then proceeds to solve whatever the problem is.

Section 3: How do you know your depth in "NO VISIBILITY" diving? you limit to 50 feet. You should always be tethered with a line that is marked every 5 feet.

Section 4: Maximum Dive Time= 20 minutes? Based on what depth?? or does that cover all situations? We recently dove a 12 foot pond.. after 20 minutes we still had 1800 - 2000 psi and we were on a tow bar so our exertion was very minimal.. Statement needs qualifiers I think... But good to have a general rule to make you think about your down time..Our max. time down is 20 minutes due to the fact that we (dopes on the ropes) can only keep our concentration for that long of a period of time and that time limit is for any depth down to 60 ft.

Section 6: Our pond referenced in section section 4's comments was approximately 350 ft wide and we were dragged from one side to the other. 125 ft does not cover it.. but under a lot of situations I can see the point.. I believe this point has to do with the diver receiving clear line signals, the longer the tether the harder it is to understand signals given by your tender, you also have to consider the drag of the rope, that's alot of friction.

Section 8: BP before the dive?? not on the first 3 divers.. no time most of the time during rescue, But if this is recovery.. OK I can see that. Good Idea.. I will begin instituting it Immediately here. Respiration per minute?? how unless you have live comms? cant always see bubbles. or differentiate.. We take the BP and respiration's for every training dive and we try to get them for every real incident. As for the rescue and recovery dives we also have that problem of getting the BPs for the primary and back up divers due to the way we respond, but we always get the 90% divers. We keep those in a file for each diver. It is the tenders responsibility to monitor the diver (get to know your brother) and he has the same authority as the diver to abort the dive. This is one of the reasons why I feel that the tenders should not be the incident commander or the profiler, they should have just one responsibility and that is to his diver. I consistently look the files over and if a diver's numbers jump out at me, I immediately contact that diver and try to find out why they are so far off his average. There is one thing that I did notice while looking at these numbers, and that is the training dives are consistently lower than that of the rescue, recovery dives and the ice dives but they are still within the safe limits that we set. As coordinator of the team I feel that it is my responsibility to make sure that these men get to go home after every dive. Know your team, don't be afraid to ask those personal questions, your lives depend on each other.

Robert R. Kave

Coordinator Allentown Fire Dept. / Underwater Recovery Team Allentown PA

3-5-03

Shawn asks many good questions about the LGS standards we posted in hopes that it would bring up some good, educational discussion. Thanks Shawn. Here goes. Thanks Robert for providing good and useful answers.

My concerns... No job is ever standard in my experiences True, but for every field in public safety there are a set of basic safety standards. Fighting fires, hazmat, law enforcement situations, EMS, etc. Actually, I think that low/no vis search dives have more similarities than operations in these other fields. We teach all over the world, in all different kinds of environments and interact with thousands of divers - and there are far more similarities to their operations than differences.

Without some basic safety standards, set by people with such kind of experience, and reviewed and tested by many hundreds of dive teams, what are teams left with? They are left with what we see. Three teams in the same district: one has hazmat tested EPDM vulcanized rubber drysuits, PP full face masks, quick release pony bottles, trained and certified tenders, etc., Another team puts 4 divers on a line and they swim around the bottom in wetsuits, standard face masks, and octopuses. When the latter team asks their chief for a budget for pony bottles and real training, they are told, why? where are the standards that say you need this. You've been getting along fine for ten years and no one is killed yet. Or worse, someone has been killed and they still don't get what they need. Even worse, they don't even know they need it. PSD diver are diving at depths in black water they don't even belong in for recreational 100 foot visibility Carribean dives. They are diving in currents with absolutely not tested, proven contingency plans - just a plan that was told to them by a "certified PSD instructor." Divers are diving without hard tethering in blackwater and when they become entangled they are not found for over two hours after their air runs out. Divers are allowed to dive under a large ship's hull without lines or a pony bottle and die when they run out of air and can't make it back to the surface. Diver's are allowed to dive in stiff currents and not only die, but die and their body is never found. Divers are allowed to dive near intakes with no understanding of hydraulic power. They are allowed to dive in water so dirty it makes them sick. They are allowed to dive under the ice without hard tethering and pony bottles and they die. None of this is acceptable in any way shape or form.

There are more similarities than differences. And please no one take an offence to this, but the people that keep saying that there are too many differences to have National minimum safety standards, are typically people who only perhaps work with one, two, or perhaps ten different teams a year - not the people who work with hundreds in everything from frigid water in Alaska to warm waters in Malaysia. The more teams you work with, the more similarities between operations you will see - the same need for the same safety standards. Just because a team has a lake that goes to 150 feet does not mean that they should go to 150 feet any more than should a team whose lake only goes to 50 feet. Just because your river goes to 6t knots doesn't mean you belong in it. That is what standards are about. They help keep us out of where we don't belong and give us the ammunition in court to show why we declared an operation a "no-go."

1) Section 2: Pony Bottle . to pass off a pony bottle from the Safety Diver to the Primary Diver, with the bottle mounted behind you to your 80 cuft tank.. how do you release it?

The primary diver and backup diver are in a good hand-to-hand grip. The primary diver taps the backup diver's hand on the primary diver's mouthpiece. That tells the backup diver that the primary diver's main cylinder is dry and the primary diver is breathing on a pony bottle. The backup diver then bends forward and places the primary diver's hand on the backup diver's pony first stage. They release hands. The primary diver releases the backup diver's pony as the backup diver releases the pony mouthpiece from it's neck strap. The primary diver switches to the backup diver's pony. This is done in case, God forbid, the primary diver drops the backup diver's pony - in that case the primary diver still has air left in his own pony that is still on his back.

There are several pony holder options:

1. a web type pony harness - release the Velcro and pull the bottle out

2. a metal system: our favorite by far is TigerGear. In most metal systems a pin is pulled and the bottle is then pulled out.

3. A BCD pony pocket, (e.g. LGS BCD) - pop open the quick release fastex buckle and pull the bottle out.

2)Why isn't the pony attached to your front or side for ease of passing it off? Good question. There are several reasons why a back mounted pony is better for bottom dwelling low/zero vis searching divers.

a)Side or front mounted pony's are right in the way of bottom entanglements, and are thus more likely to become entangled than back mounted pony bottles.

b)Side/front mounts may cause male divers discomfort as the bottom of the cylinders end up in the crotch area, creating a pressure there as the divers lay on the bottom searching (as we were told by several divers whose instructor changed their back mount to a side/front mount)

c)Side/front mounted pony bottles can get in the way of a weight belt buckle or a weight harness release. That is a real safety hazard.

d)Side/front mounted pony bottles have a tendency to move around more than back mounted bottles. This makes it proportionately more difficult to control one's buoyancy and movements.

e) to keep a taut tether line with minimal physical or mental effort the diver's position is angled 135 degrees (45 degrees away from perpendicular) away from the tender. This puts the tether line against the diver's side/hip. That allows the diver to always feel the line (one of the many reasons why hand loops in the tether line are not needed). A side/front mounted pony can get in the way of the tether line.

f) there are a few other reasons, but I'm a bit tired, and I think these should do to start us off.

3) Section 3: How do you know your depth in "NO VISIBILITY" diving? you limit to 50 feet. You A maximum depth indicator is useful on a pressure gauge. We recommend analog gauges because if there is an inch of visibility, the gauge can be lighted for a few seconds, then let the green glow show where the needle is. Know where our depths are as if it was a clock. Or tape a zip lock bag filled with clear water over the gauge and use a pen light to read the gauge.

Section 4: Maximum Dive Time= 20 minutes? Based on what depth?? or does that cover all situations? We recently dove a 12 foot pond.. after 20 minutes we still had 1800 - 2000 psi and we were on a tow bar so our exertion was very minimal.. Statement needs qualifiers I think... But good to have a general rule to make you think about your down time..We use a 20 minute max dive time with a possible 5 minute extension for all depths up to 60 feet - as long as the diver comes back on deck or shore with a MINIMUM of 1000 psi. There are five main reasons for this.

a) - helps to make sure the diver returns with at least 1,000 psi even if something goes wrong

b) - makes sure divers are still able to give enough full concentration with their mind's eye visualizing everything their bodies and hands touch. We have found that after 25 minutes in low/no visibility water, attention starts to wander and a little voice starts saying "it's not here, I'm not going to find it here." Once that happens, search quality definitely decreases.

c) - if divers are allowed to search for 40, 50 minutes, they are generally whipped. You can't put them back in, in any reasonable time. If we keep it to 20-25 minutes then with a five person crew (primary diver and tender, backup diver and tender, 90% ready diver) we can keep diving all day long - 3 dives per diver if they feel up to it. Looking for an adult body size object in blackwater that would give us 9 dives at 3,000 square feet each search for a total of 28,000 square feet accurately and safely searched. Not bad for a days diving.

d) A tender's attention span must also be taken into account. After 20-25 minutes, tenders are more likely to look away for a few seconds here and there- which could be a real safety hazard.

d) if primary divers are allowed to dive for 40, 50 minutes, that means that backup divers are sitting for 40, 50 minutes without a break, and 90% divers are sitting for twice that, before it is their turn to dive. That can decrease their searching capability.

Section 6: Our pond referenced in section 4's comments was approximately 350 ft wide and we were dragged from one side to the other. 125 ft does not cover it.. but under a lot of situations I can see the point.. I will post an entire article on this question. Perhaps the 125 foot line length issue needs to be described better. 125 feet is the maximum tether line length. The size of the search area is not the issue. You can have a search area that is 1,000 but 1,000. Not a problem Each diver searches an area 100 feet by 30 feet for an adult body in blackwater. (max accurate rate is 1200 running feet in 20-25 minutes, so that would be 12 sweeps, 100 foot long each and 2 1/2 wide. (2.5 feet x 12 sweeps is 30 feet. 30 feet wide by 100 feet long is 3,000 square feet). The diver never needs to be more than 125 feet from the tender and backup diver.

a) too long line length means possible loss of signals

b) more line means more drag and exertion to keep the line taut. More than 125 feet can result in a bowed line, and therefore a poor pattern.

c) more line means too long for a backup diver to reach a primary diver.

a) It only takes a minute to take a BP. That minute will not make a significant difference in whether the dead victim on the bottom will be able to be resuscitated and lead a normal life or not - at least there is no research that I have found to support that. But, especially in a rescue mode, when adrenaline is high, it could make a big difference in a diver's safety to have a BP taken. This is true for two reasons. First, the diver's BP could be too high (we use 160/90 as the max) which is a contraindication for diving. Secondly, taking the BP gives everyone a minute of time to breathe, and relax, and think. And as Bob very nicely points out, the diver is number one, not the dead victim on the bottom (even in rescue modes the victim starts out dead, and often stays that way).

b)take the BP afterwards to make sure it is not too low (usually from immersion and cold diuresis, dehydration....) or too high from stress - physical or mental

c) The only time you shouldn't be able to see bubbles is if it is in overhead environment dive. Then comm's are very recommended. If no comm's then we have a signal system to stop the diver and do a breathing check - the diver gives a pull on every exhalation. Yes, this wont be accurate because when you think about your breathing, you change it - but that is okay, because if the diver is too high, it will help slow the BPM down.

Shawn, thank you again for such great questions. Please send more!

stay safe and thinking,

Andrea Zaferes
Lifeguard Systems & RIPTIDE

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Phone: 845-657-5544

Fax: 845-657-5549