This thread is based on a raging debate in another forum. I wasn't sure what area to post it. The discussion started pretty much in the world of tech diving, but I am hoping to expand the base of the debate a bit. I am especially hoping some of our diving attorneys will chime in. The reason is that the original impetus for that raging discussion was an incident that resulted in a lawsuit. I don't want to focus on that lawsuit, so I will try to frame the issue in more generic terms.
In technical diving, and especially cave diving, there has long been a universally accepted rule that any diver can call any dive at any time for any reason without repercussions. No one argues that, and I hope that people outside the tech world have the same feeling. The issue that is being debated is precisely what should happen when someone thumbs the dive. Some people are arguing that when that happens, every member of the group must end the dive completely--everyone gets out of the water. Others have argued that there are situations when that might not be the case. For example, what if your group jumps in from a boat, and during the descent someone has a minor problem? Does that mean that everyone has to end the dive and get back on the boat, or is there a point where it is safe to leave that person?
Let me describe the legal ramifications. Let's say you have a group of 3-4 divers beginning a dive. You are no more than a minute or two into the dive, and a diver indicates a problem and wants to end the dive. Your whole group accompanies the diver to a point near the surface where everything looks to be OK, the diver ending the dive indicates he or she is OK to exit, and the rest of the group goes on with the dive. When your group is done and returns, you find that the diver was not OK but had in fact died before exiting the water. Should your group bear any responsibility for that death? Something like that happened to people I know. During a descent, one of the divers indicated a problem. His signals clearly told the rest of the group to go ahead while he surfaced. His body was never found. Do the people who did not accompany him to the surface have any responsibility for his death?
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?
In technical diving, and especially cave diving, there has long been a universally accepted rule that any diver can call any dive at any time for any reason without repercussions. No one argues that, and I hope that people outside the tech world have the same feeling. The issue that is being debated is precisely what should happen when someone thumbs the dive. Some people are arguing that when that happens, every member of the group must end the dive completely--everyone gets out of the water. Others have argued that there are situations when that might not be the case. For example, what if your group jumps in from a boat, and during the descent someone has a minor problem? Does that mean that everyone has to end the dive and get back on the boat, or is there a point where it is safe to leave that person?
Let me describe the legal ramifications. Let's say you have a group of 3-4 divers beginning a dive. You are no more than a minute or two into the dive, and a diver indicates a problem and wants to end the dive. Your whole group accompanies the diver to a point near the surface where everything looks to be OK, the diver ending the dive indicates he or she is OK to exit, and the rest of the group goes on with the dive. When your group is done and returns, you find that the diver was not OK but had in fact died before exiting the water. Should your group bear any responsibility for that death? Something like that happened to people I know. During a descent, one of the divers indicated a problem. His signals clearly told the rest of the group to go ahead while he surfaced. His body was never found. Do the people who did not accompany him to the surface have any responsibility for his death?
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?