Wes Skiles' Widow Looking For 25 Million from Lamartek

[tridacna]

You reckon? I was thinking they would prefer a bunch of OC divers on the jury as they would be thinking "Hey, I dive, this is basically safe. If a guy died suddenly for no reason, it must have been an equipment failure."

Who exactly is "they"? Both sides have peremptory challenges. My guess is the other "they" will use them.

Florida's population is over 20,000,000. Exactly how many of those do you suppose are SCUBA divers? I reckon that the odds of getting more than one on a jury in this trial are slim to none anyway.

 

[rjack321]

Further, was a proper forensic study, by a qualified neutral party done?

Standing by.

That is part of the dispute. That DR "tampered" with the unit preventing anyone from figuring out what actually went wrong. Not every CCR involved in an accident goes to NEDU. So absent that, who else was going to examine it?

 

[sheeper]

this case will be interesting to follow and will have repercussions in the dive industry. Looking at rebreather fatalities statistically, the number of incidents where there was a catastrophic defect in the unit seems to be insignificant. Based on most available data, rebreather fatalities have been due to 1) operator error; which includes doing things outside your level of training or exceeding the operating parameters of the unit, and 2) diver medical issues.

the state of dive insurance in the US is already a mess. this will likely not make it any better.

 

[Leadking]

Before I bought my rebreather (2002), I read as many accident and incident reports as I could find. I didn't want to dive a device that was faulty or unproven. Reading these reports put my mind to ease. Every report I could find, at the time, showed operator error, and is some cased, incredible stupidity. Later, after purchasing the unit, I attended a lecture by the NEDU, which claimed they had NEVER seen a catastrophic failure of a rebreather. With all that said, it doesn't mean that someday I don't do something stupid and kill myself, but that would be MY fault.

 

[dreamdive]

Considering what NEDU is diving, I don't regard them as experts in recreational rebreathers! The Navy does things quite differently than we do.

 

[Leadking]

Considering what NEDU is diving, I don't regard them as experts in recreational rebreathers! The Navy does things quite differently than we do.

They do forensics on all military diving equipment that result in both fatalities and incidents. They also will do, on a time available, forensics on recreational equipment. As you are so negative about NEDU capabilities, who do you say is more capable?

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Sad story indeed. Legal issues aside, let's remember we are responsible for our own safety first and foremost, including diving within our own competence.
DivemasterDennis

 

[The Chairman]

@Leadking Yeah, I would be trusting the NEDU over anyone in our industry. They have nothing to prove as they process the gear. Too many figjams in our industry who don't mind stepping on others to make a name for themselves, usually with truth as one of the casualties.

 

[RJP]

This is so sad.

Divers, do you have good life insurance? Maybe your spouses won't do this.

A.) I have great life insurance... but it specifically excludes diving

B.) If I die while diving, my wife has been told to check with my trusted dive buddy to see if it was likely my fault - or no one's fault - and proceed accordingly

 

[Johnoly]

PBC M.E. does very few tests inhouse and regularly uses between 3- 5 outside entities to submit reports back. It's not just NEDU, so don't focus on them. It's also Wuesthoff, Elite, D & M Consultants Int, and some others.

Always remember an accident is NEVER one single event that you can point your finger at. It is a chain sequence of events that if just one link in that chain is interrupted it changes the entire outcome.