Which cert card to present
- Thread starter lowflyer
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
It is for your protection. If you file a report immediately, it can be used to show that you were not involved. If you make a report after you are accused, it looks like you are reacting to the accusation and being less than truthful.
Yhea but the point of it is rather vague. So lets say I am a DM and I am on a charter (as a paying customer, no professional capacity at all) and for whatever reason I am back on the boat chillin and 10min later another diver comes up on the boat and tells the captain that his/her diver buddy drown and is at the bottom of the ocean. The captain shouts "HOLY SHITBALLS!!" and sends down a charter DM to look for the dead persons body and gets on the radio to raise the Coast Guard. DM actually finds the body and gets it back on the boat and gathers all the other little charter people to get them back on the boat. Coast Guard comes and takes body and we head in to the dock/marina. What exactly am I suppose to write in my report as I had nothing to do with any of this.
Subject appeared lifeless and was taken away by Coast Guard. End of report.
What value is that report to anyone and in what way could I possibly be implicated in the terrible accident?
Subject appeared lifeless and was taken away by Coast Guard. End of report.
What value is that report to anyone and in what way could I possibly be implicated in the terrible accident?
You would report the entire thing, much as you described above, but in more detail. In reporting it myself, I would emphasize what I was doing throughout the situation.
I have only had to fill out one incident report, and it, too, was probably an exercise in extreme caution. It was when i was still a DM, and I was assisting in an OW class's pool session. One of the students reported feeling extremely dizzy, and he had some other unusual symptoms. I put him on oxygen while the rest of the class continued. He did not get better. His wife was in the class, too, and we finally pulled her out and had her drive him to the hospital. The instructor and I each wrote out very detailed incident reports and faxed them in immediately after the class was over. It turned out he had the flu, so there was no real scuba incident, but it is much better to be safe than sorry.
I get you John and I am not arguing with you or what you are saying. I am simply saying that when you are involved in no way it is kinda dumb for an agency to require a "report" from you. In your story above you were operating in a professional capacity and I totally understand that. In my example, I was in no way operating in a professional capacity and come to think of it, I was in the toilet the whole time (Montezuma's revenge) and heard everything second hand from a guy that told me what happened after I blew up the toilet. Now, I was still on the boat when the incident occurred but have zero first hand knowledge of anything. My report would be nothing more than hear say.
The purpose of the report is to protect you and your agency from future litigation. Reporting just what you actually saw or did is all that is required - no hearsay. For example, "I was in the toilet while the diver was brought on the boat. I heard the call go out for EMS and saw the diver unresponsive being worked on by boat staff. No assistance from me was asked for or was required. I did not participate nor was I involved in any other way pre-dive, during the incident or afterwards."
Later, when the lawyers circle looking for blood, your incident report can be introduced as evidence that you (and your agency) are in fact are not liable. It is a more accurate record and has more weight than just adding testimony a year or two after the fact when the matter goes to trial.
A lot of what scuba professionals do relates to risk mitigation. It is what it is.
As I am a LEO, I understand risk mitigation and reports. It still just seems odd to me. If I am down at Disney World and someone shoots someone else I am not "required" to fill out a report for my agency or the local agency.
That is all too accurate.
Recent lawsuits against instructors and divemasters have included the agencies that certified them. In one very important case, two DMs who were part of a dive club took responsibility for calling the roll before and after dives on a 3-tank boat trip. They missed one guy, who drifted all day and was eventually found alive. He sued, and the suit included PADI, which had nothing whatsoever to do with the incident. The suit claimed that the dive club's DMs were acting as "agents" of PADI. PADI lost to the tune of $2 million. As a consequence, all the standard PADI liability releases call for the signers to acknowledge that the instructor or DM with whom they are working are not agents of PADI.
Since then, it looks like it has become standard for lawsuits to include the agency of the individual being sued, no matter how remote the connection might seem.
Makes sense gentlemen, thanks..
Similar threads
