A young dad who died while hundreds of feet underwater had complained that the equipment around his neck was too tight before embarking on a dive, a court heard yesterday.
The fatal accident inquiry into the death of North Sea diver Russell Robinson yesterday heard evidence from Richard Martins, a heath and safety inspector and diving specialist.
He told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that during his investigations into the 33-year-old’s death he found, almost certainly, that the technical equipment was not at fault on October 30, 2011.
He said the evidence seemed to suggest Mr Robinson had suffered some medical problem while more than 400ft below the surface.
The court previously heard evidence from Mr Robinson’s colleagues on the day, Paul Stone and Simon Bradley, who said he had complained that the neck dam he was wearing was too tight.
Mr Stone said Mr Robinson decided to just continue using the dam for the short time he would be in the sea for what was a routine dive.
Mr Stone said divers would often cut a piece away to allow more room if it was too tight.
However, Mr Robinson did not have any time to carry out the alteration before the dive began.
Reading yesterday from a book of regulations provided to divers, Mr Martins said: “Never dive with a neck dam that is too tight.
“A neck dam which is too tight can cause a diver to pass out due to the pressure on the carotid artery on the neck . This could lead to serious injury or death.”
Mr Martins added that the Health and Safety Executive had issued warnings to divers about the potential affects of having a tight neck dam following the incident on the Balmoral floating production vessel.
He added: “We have taken steps on the lessons learned from this investigation and passed them on to the wider industry to improve divers’ safety focusing on divers’ recovery and recovery equipment”.
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