Nitrox "sign-out" sheet for tank fills at LDS

[The Chairman]

I have been known to make up serial numbers.

 

[ssidiv3r]

My shop requires tank serial number, mix %, tank pressure after the customer analyzes the mix, MOD, customer signature and customer Nox cert number. It is a pain in the butt filling everything out but luckily the few times we do nox fills they are handled by the shop owner

 

[drbill]

I also slightly grit my teeth against the ever prevalent concept that nitrox is so much more dangerous than air that we need to emply all sorts of special procedures for it. Old habits die really really hard.

It's not the Nitrox that's more dangerous... it's the diver using it!

 

[The Chairman]

Yet the diver remains the same, no matter what they carry in their tanks.

 

[devilkitty]

Single bottles, yes at most shops.
Never seem to have to when I get doubles filled.

 

[fnfalman]

I usually would just throw some money on the counter, grab my tank and haul ass out to the car before they can make me sign anything.

 

[Tropicalwolf]

I always analyze.. However, if I can get out of the door without signing a book, im happy. I hate filling them out. Sometimes, I have to, sometimes I don't.

Same here.

 

[vladimir]

I use my own analyzer, but I'm always willing to follow reasonable rules, as long as somebody tells me what they are. A dive op in Bonaire questioned my training because I neglected to sign out the nitrox tanks, so I said, "You're right, I'm clearly not qualified--I'll stick to air for the balance of my stay." So he was out $100, or whatever it was, and my DCS risk was .001% higher.

 

[GrandpaScuba]

A dive shop that I have been going to (out of convenience) does nitrox fills. When you pick up your tank, they have a book where you enter the O2 percentage and MOD, with your name and signature.

I'm curious: For other nitrox divers out there, does your LDS make you do something similar?

This is pretty much standard practice. If you kill yourself, especially if you kill yourself below the MOD, they have proof that you were aware of the contents of your tank and what the limitation was.

 

[B Lo]

As someone with a J.D. that admittedly has never studied or practiced "SCUBA law," there are a few things that I would consider. Take this as personal, not legal, advice. First, what is the industry standard? If the standard is to require a log and you fail to do so, would that bode well for you? Second, if you require a log at one point and then fail to enforce it and/or subsequently drop the log requirement, is it possible that you might be estopped from denying that it was an appropriate procedure to follow? There is a public policy reason behind encouraging subsequent remedial measures, but the reverse is not true. If you have a “safety” policy in place and remove it, you can bet the plaintiff will use it against you.

While I'm not a lawyer, I would think it is just the opposite. The function of the LDS log is to document that the diver DID analyze their own tank, in the presence of witnesses, and attested to that fact.

Further, by the LDS keeping a log, it demonstrates that the LDS is not giving out tanks to non-nitrox certified divers, which is an additional limit should someone do their own fill or get a fill elsewhere and try to pin liability back on the LDS.

It must be understood that just about anyone can be named in a legal action, and the costs associated with simply demonstrating that there can't be liability because of appropriate behavior can be exceedingly costly. A log would seem to go a long way to showing that including an LDS in such a suit would be frivolous.

But that is the perspective of a non-lawyer based solely on what I've read about in terms of a small number of actual cases given as examples in various articles on instructor and LDS liability.