Family sues resort over son who died diving in The Crater

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...that is hogwash....a lifeguard is basically useless if your freediving! he was responsible for himself and should have had someone working with him or swimming with him specifically!

Emparo821,

Could you please explain your seemingly inconsistent logic: if a lifeguard is "basically useless," in your opinion, why should the victim have had, in your opinion, a safety-swimmer? True, a dedicated safety swimmer can render aid a few seconds faster than a lifeguard, but there are many instances when lifeguards have indeed saved lives - so how are lifeguards "basically useless?" Also true, sadly, have been instances of "useless" lifeguards - situations where people drowned when lifeguards, as determined by courts after-the-fact, had neglected their duties by chatting amongst themselves and ignored swimmers. But you seemed to imply that even an attentive lifeguard would have been "useless." BTW, I believe that lifeguards shouldn't be sued if they were responsibly on duty and, despite their heroic efforts, a life was lost.

As you say, the victim SHOULD have had a safety diver working with him (I agree). But why would a well-trained dive instructor lend a solo free diver a mask in the first place? Wouldn't a well trained instructor know about the hazards of shallow-water blackout? If so, isn't lending a mask to a solo diver enabling a hazardous situation - particularly when no lifeguard is on duty? Was the instructor fully - FULLY - informed by his training agency about the risks of shallow-water blackout?

Is it unfair to consider the instructor as potentially liable for failing his or her duty-to-warn RE shallow water blackout? If John Doe (non dive-pro) lent a mask to the victim and didn't warn about SWBO, no liability should be considered. But mitigation of dive accidents -- setting and adhering to "standards of care" -- is the burden accepted by training agencies and dive instructors, for which they receive intrinsic and extrinsic benefits unavailable to non dive professionals. It's a pathetic excuse to rely upon, "Gee, accidents have always happened, and they always will; that's why they're called accidents." Sometimes, that may be true; but all the time? Rubbish.

If -- IF -- part of the dive industry's marketing plan is to increase profits by withholding specialized knowledge and information about risks (as seemingly occurs, per my first post in this thread), then perhaps statistics RE shallow-water blackout are also selectively withheld?

If the truthful scuba accident rate is withheld while the industry simultaneously trains dive pros to
overcome the hesitance of would-be divers (customers) by claiming that "diving is as safe as bowling," then no industry Pooh-bah should be surprised when dive pros are beguiled by an accident-waiting-to-happen that swims right up and asks to borrow a mask.

Regrettably, the marketing tactics that some folks believe to be "devious" will continue until the legal defense costs make the industry's traditional risk-management calculus unprofitable, never mind the tragic road-kill of these tactics:

  • Countless families the victims left behind;
  • Dive pros who carry an awful burden of self-imposed guilt the rest of their lives for losing a student / customer (these conscientious dive pros never knew what their own training omitted);
  • And possibly another malleable cadre of dive pros who blindly accepted their training, and fight to preserve the status quo of the industry, without questioning those who make the rules. Perhaps sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies are cultivated with boogeyman tales of greedy plaintiff lawyers? How else can one explain the few but vocal dive pros who passionately concoct ludicrous hypothetical explanations after accidents to explain why and how it is (always) the victims' fault?
Taking personal responsibility for matters of life-and-death is a two-way street: both divers and the dive industry's leadership should be held accountable for their deeds.
 
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Actually,I have trained and taught in the crater on a few occasion, including just last December, and the vis is almost always 40 feet or more. It is sad when we look to "fix blame" rather than fix problems. I for one think the crater is a very very safe and well run place to dive.
DivemasterDennis
 
^^I actually got certified in the Crater, and dove there several times after (although there's not much to see. It's just kinda cool trudging through snow with your dive gear to hit 85+ degree water.) Maybe they should have a lifeguard; I don't know the law, but it certainly can't hurt, especially since families with children stay at the resort. I agree that it is a "very very safe place to dive," depending on the diver. I've personally witnessed OW instructors leave students to dive on their own, even when viz was around 10ft. At the time, I was too new to realize that that's not the way it should be.

Why is this very very dangerous? Besides the obvious, the Crater is at an elevation of over 5,000 feet. That brings altitude diving into the mix -- a bit much for OW students, IMO. Also, great viz goes to crap within minutes when a newbie hits the floor (65+ feet according to my computer and logs -- maybe "actual" and "practical" depth differ due to the increased specific gravity of the water over regular freshwater?) and struggles to swim upward, causing a major silt-up. Poor viz is then compounded by poor lighting. How many OW students do you think will be able to stick with their buddy and ascend at a safe rate in that situation?

It's definitely a site you'd want a very conscientious instructor for when the OW classes dive.
 
75K is the threshold amount that gets them into Federal Court; most Complaints plead the jurisdictional amount and add the phrase "and such other relief as this court deems appropriate" - -they are not only asking for 75 as that would not even cover fees. Any Federal Court case that goes to trial will cost several hundred thousand dollars - -assuming competent counsel and modest discovery.
 

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