In this debate, some are arguing that such a responsibility does indeed exist, and if a person who thumbs a dive is not accompanied all the way to the dry ground, the rest of the team should be held accountable for anything that happens. They have argued that it is implied by the established rule that any diver can call any dive at any time. When they call the dive--they call the entire dive. As a part of that discussion, I have asked participants to identify any language in any agency that states that clearly. So far no one has found anything. Realizing that, one person has told me privately that he will make sure that requirement is stated clearly in the agency materials now being revised.
So what happens if such language is included in that revision? If an agency (and especially if all agencies) say that if one diver ends a dive, everyone ends the dive completely, will that create a legal burden upon all divers to follow that practice? Will it mean that in the instances cited above in which people in the beginning of a dive indicated they were OK to exit on their own but had some kind of accident during their exit, everyone who did not exit will be liable for that accident and potentially be sued? Will adding such language alter the legal issues at all?