This is a settlement from a 1997 accident. Was also posted in accidents and incidents...
Court orders scuba instructor, travel agent to pay $430,000 for diver fatality
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by LUTHER MONROE and AKI MORI
TOKYO, Japan (26 Nov 2004) -- In yet another bizarre decision by a Japanese judge, a scuba instructor and a travel agent have been ordered to pay US$430,000 in damages to the family of a diver who died in 1997 after being run over by a dive boat operated by a fisherman.
The victim, a 46-year-old Japanese female resident of Tokyo, was on a dive tour to Mikomoto Island off the southeast coast of Izu Peninsula. She was fatally struck in the head by the propeller of another dive boat while ascending to the surface after completing a dive.
Relatives of the victim had filed a US$1.2 million lawsuit accusing the dive instructor and travel agent of negligence for not adequately informing divers of proper ascent procedures in an area that gets heavy boat traffic.
Takafumi Okuda, the presiding judge in the case, ruled that the victim was 30 percent responsible, and the dive instructor and dive travel agent were 70 percent responsible for the death.
"The instructor and others involved knew that boats were in the area, but they were not attentive enough," Okuda said. "The dive instructor should have instructed the divers to carefully look around the area before telling them to surface."
While Judge Okuda severely punished a dive instructor and a dive travel agent who did not actually participate in the dive, he somehow managed to completely overlook the fishing/whaling industry boat captain who actually ran over and killed the diver.
Dive boats in Japan are typically operated by local fishing boat captains who have no professional diver training but are members of regional fishing industry coops that have been linked to organized crime gangs.
Court orders scuba instructor, travel agent to pay $430,000 for diver fatality
Powered by CYBER DIVER News Network
by LUTHER MONROE and AKI MORI
TOKYO, Japan (26 Nov 2004) -- In yet another bizarre decision by a Japanese judge, a scuba instructor and a travel agent have been ordered to pay US$430,000 in damages to the family of a diver who died in 1997 after being run over by a dive boat operated by a fisherman.
The victim, a 46-year-old Japanese female resident of Tokyo, was on a dive tour to Mikomoto Island off the southeast coast of Izu Peninsula. She was fatally struck in the head by the propeller of another dive boat while ascending to the surface after completing a dive.
Relatives of the victim had filed a US$1.2 million lawsuit accusing the dive instructor and travel agent of negligence for not adequately informing divers of proper ascent procedures in an area that gets heavy boat traffic.
Takafumi Okuda, the presiding judge in the case, ruled that the victim was 30 percent responsible, and the dive instructor and dive travel agent were 70 percent responsible for the death.
"The instructor and others involved knew that boats were in the area, but they were not attentive enough," Okuda said. "The dive instructor should have instructed the divers to carefully look around the area before telling them to surface."
While Judge Okuda severely punished a dive instructor and a dive travel agent who did not actually participate in the dive, he somehow managed to completely overlook the fishing/whaling industry boat captain who actually ran over and killed the diver.
Dive boats in Japan are typically operated by local fishing boat captains who have no professional diver training but are members of regional fishing industry coops that have been linked to organized crime gangs.