In the thread regarding the New Jersey on-line purchase, a poster replied with a link to this article:
http://www.cdnn.info/safety/s040413a/s040413a.html
Summary: A tech diver in an instructional course died on a course dive. He was divorced. His ex filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of their 13 year old daughter. The state appellet court (one step below the state Supreme Court) has ruled unanimously that the suit can proceed against the dive shop.
What this means, at least in New Jersey, is that you cannot waive your heirs' rights to sue if you die while diving. In short, every time you dive under the supervision of some 3rd party, you place that 3rd party at risk of bankruptcy if you die. Even if you die doing something stupid. Depending on how large the medical bills are, that might apply even if all that happens is that you get bent and can't recover enough to resume your original occupation and/or child support payments. (Most small retailers probably have zero safety margin, and even a "small" $10,000 settlement would kill them.)
The article says that nobody expects any major fallout over this decision, as diving accidents are rare. That may be true, but I suspect that over a reasonable length of time, say 10 years or so, a significant number of dive stores probably suffer a fatality to one of their dive students (even if the fatality is really an underwater heart attack, the likely coronor's report will be "death by drowning"). Worse, the more "technical" the instruction, the fewer locations will offer training, meaning that higher-risk instruction gets concentrated into a small number of stores, with vastly increased chances of being the supervisor during a fatality.
This looks like Russian Roulette to me. Any dive professionals care to comment?
Ryan
http://www.cdnn.info/safety/s040413a/s040413a.html
Summary: A tech diver in an instructional course died on a course dive. He was divorced. His ex filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of their 13 year old daughter. The state appellet court (one step below the state Supreme Court) has ruled unanimously that the suit can proceed against the dive shop.
What this means, at least in New Jersey, is that you cannot waive your heirs' rights to sue if you die while diving. In short, every time you dive under the supervision of some 3rd party, you place that 3rd party at risk of bankruptcy if you die. Even if you die doing something stupid. Depending on how large the medical bills are, that might apply even if all that happens is that you get bent and can't recover enough to resume your original occupation and/or child support payments. (Most small retailers probably have zero safety margin, and even a "small" $10,000 settlement would kill them.)
The article says that nobody expects any major fallout over this decision, as diving accidents are rare. That may be true, but I suspect that over a reasonable length of time, say 10 years or so, a significant number of dive stores probably suffer a fatality to one of their dive students (even if the fatality is really an underwater heart attack, the likely coronor's report will be "death by drowning"). Worse, the more "technical" the instruction, the fewer locations will offer training, meaning that higher-risk instruction gets concentrated into a small number of stores, with vastly increased chances of being the supervisor during a fatality.
This looks like Russian Roulette to me. Any dive professionals care to comment?
Ryan
