DMs checking qualifications and liability

[cloudswinger]

Found this while I was following some other links. I rarely have had my qualifications checked by my local divemasters. I don't know how different liability law is between Australia and the US.

Dive company negligent on death | Herald Sun

 

[franny]

The company (MDS) were prosecuted in 2007 under the OH&S laws for not maintaining a safe environment for persons other than employees. The company was fined $200,000. This is a follow on case.

I have seen the main operator down here, checking certs and experience for dives, especially for more technical dives. A combination of both show you can show the skills necessary.This would have been as a result of the death that occurred back in 2004.

This is a follow on case, basically the company was dissolved after the worksafe prosecution, so the parents are trying to get money from the victims of crime compensation scheme.

 

[jogngymrat]

i have been diving for about 6 years, both in the springs and on a boat (Atlantic ocean). i have never been allowed to pay my 'fee' (even in the springs) without first showing my certification card. even in the Bahamas i was required to show my card. a also had to sign a waiver and show my last dive (within a year).
i dont understand how any competent dive shop/charter could be held esponsible if all these requirements were met.

 

[DreamSurfer]

I'm sure laws vary from state to state, country to country, yet it seems to me that if you are going into the ocean, there needs to be some sense of self-responsibility.

If you walk in front of a speeding car, you need to be responsible, if you go in a lake, ocean or stream, you need to know what you are getting into, and thus be responsible. If you take up snorkeling or diving or base jumping or crossing the street in LA, WE need to be
responsible for ourselves & our own actions!

I realize that Instructors, DMs, etc. take on a lot of responsibility (I am a retired instructor, yet I still dive on my other C-cards), and I
took & still take that responsibility VERY seriously.

We've become such a paperwork-oriented society, and although I take that responsibility seriously as well, I think it's sad that more people aren't simply more responsible for their own actions.

If I climb a cliff, take up hang gliding, etc. & I make a mistake then as a result get hurt, is that not my own responsibility?

I don't have every C-Card for everything I've been taught to do, not even underwater - not even close! (Cave, cold water, altitude, cave, wreck, deep, drift, rapid water, rescue, rapid water rescue, pulling dead cattle out of grates of the LA water system's dams, mixed gas diving, U/W work -welding, lift bags, salvage, hard-hat, half mask, air lifts (water & ground), extraction, shark, whale ID, marine mammal extraction & rehab., plankton tows, cold water (dry suit/ice diving) etc., etc., etc. and I could go on, but I won't.)

I have a purse full of cards for darn near everything & it can't hold even half of them when they are put 3 to a slot! (and there are many!)

I just wonder when our toddlers will have to take a class in crossing the street & have a C-Card to show a crossing guard before they are allowed to cross the street to go to school???

When do we stop the paperwork/certification/legal mess & learn to take some self-responsibility???

 

[cloudswinger]

You may take personal responsibility, but that doesn't keep your parents or spouse from suing.

 

[adurso]

From the article:

Mr Grant said he was pleased with the decision about his son's death.

"My greatest fear was that he was to be blamed for his own death," he said.


Fascinating

 

[ktomlinson]

From the article:

Mr Grant said he was pleased with the decision about his son's death.

"My greatest fear was that he was to be blamed for his own death," he said.


Fascinating

Indeed.

 

[Richard_T]

I am a lawyer admitted to practice in CA, CO and FL. I can tell you that these issues are somewhat more complicated than they may appear. For instance, in many states in the U.S. we have the law of comparative negligence, i.e. that a jury must determine comparative fault of the defendant(s) and the plaintiff and award damages, if any in that proportion. In CO, for instance, if the plaintiff is 50% or more negligent, he or she can recover nothing. In a pure comparative negligence state such as FL, the proportion of responsibility is absolute, e.g. If plaintiff is 99% liable for his own conduct, he can only receive 1% of his damages. In this way, our society determines liability and damages for particular actions.

As a diver, I am fine with the idea that we should accept that diving has dangers and that we are each accepting that risk. However, legally-speaking that is embodied in the informed consent of signing a release of liability for each dive excursion with a dive operation. The informed consent or knowing waiver of liability comes from our training and the content of the waiver. So, it is simply not enough to do away with the paperwork and change our society to believe that a divoperation cannot have some degree of fault depending upon the exact circumstances of a given dive accident's facts.

 

[Timbro]

I reckon the judge got it right. Surely a basic DM responsibility is checking that divers have a qualification and some experience. It doesn't take much time to ask each diver a simple question 'How many dives have you done and when was the last one?'.
Sure, the diver was at fault for taking on a dive that maybe he shouldn't have done. And he had a responsibilty to test his gear and get a buddy to do so too.
The diver and the DM both had responsibilities and they both failed.
Just because the diver was at fault doesn't absolve the DM from her responsibilities.
Never mind the legalities - a Dive Master can't control every eventuality, but there must be a certain basic level of responsibility that 'goes with the territory'.

 

[kdsmithjr]

You may not prevail in a suit but any lawyer will tell you that you can besued for anything...and you need an attorney to defend you, even in a frivolous action.