Someone should call Willis and suggest they argue that unenforced Standards are NOT standards....
PADI should lose. Willis should win. And of course, the ratio should be 2 to one....
If Willis wins, the entire industry will be forced to become safer...To have "real" and enforced, standards.
I'm not sure even remotely how this makes sense. How about you call the instructor and demand he FOLLOW standards? Does individual responsibility have zero meaning?
Are you suggesting a new "industry standard" of enforcing standards? So far as we can tell - only PADI has a systemic Q&A program. So are you suggesting scuba police? Big brother will love that! Since only the PADI system uses a outreach Q&A - if say it's a good model for all other agencies to build upon. Is it perfect? No- but a solid start.
But, Courts aren't supposed to "make up" industry norms- they're their to evaluate an individual's compliance or non-compliance with them in determining fault in a "inherently hazardous activity" like scuba when a controversy occurs. But they are not watchdogs nor legislatures.
You say Willis should win...Why? Certainly Not on the merits of the instructors actions.
The only way Willis wins is if the Family and Doctors are found 100% liable between them. Not likely- in general in tort cases, but even less so in THIS fact pattern. Also remember The doctors aren't even a party - as it seems their motion for dismissal on jurisdictional grounds was granted.
I think Willis should have disclaimed coverage for the gross negligence of the instructor. In that respect they shouldn't be in the case. I'd agree there.
But even though it's not happening - because PADI is no longer at risk for liability-for the sake of muse: How will the change in DSD standards make the "scuba industry safer"?
Empirically PADI's DSD is the safest program per diver of any scuba program - you may not like the fact but unless you can produce a study to refute it - it's the only one which has done an analysis - and that's the way to objectively measure "safety"... Not the "just so stories" that are regurgitated here.
So to take us back to you post's central tenant- PADI can't lose- as they are now insulated from liability by their settlement.
However, The industry can still lose because one bad instructor, doing everything in his power to make matters worse at every turn, killed a child at a Boy Scout camp in Utah....
---------- Post added January 5th, 2015 at 10:01 PM ----------
Let's see...things that without enforcement, could cause many people..including many children, to die each year.. How about something like No enforcement of DUI rules/standards...plenty of drunk drivers with no effective enforcement to prevent it......far more accidents and deaths of innocents.....And then there is PADI, that "certifies" more instructors than any other agency, and while it tells people they can't drive drunk, does nothing to actually prevent it....er...ahh, .....has "standards" that dive instructors should follow, but absolutely no interest in making sure the standards are followed---it is actually a bad Joke at many tourism destinations with the rampant instructor violations of common sense....But hey, instructors and shops need to make money, right? Of course there needs to be collateral damage.....Livelihoods are on the line.
Apples and Oranges. States regulate the privilege of driving, maintain the roads, etc. Thus they have a duty to enforce the laws that regulate such activity. Hence their mandate is self evident.
Scuba diving is a permissive hazardous sport. You chose to engage in a risky pass time activity (like skiing) because you enjoy the thrill - and realize you take a risk in doing so.
PADI at least performs systemic Q&A checks and objectively collects and published its data- does any other agency? I don't think so....
So if you think there is a broad based Q&A safety issue WHAT is your solution to it? Annual inspections? Undercover scuba ringers? Mandatory retraining on some set schedule?
BTW How much are we charging for that retraining and Q&A- I can hear it now, "PADI wants more money to retrain/recertify me- see it's all about the money...."
---------- Post added January 5th, 2015 at 10:10 PM ----------
Like most of the rest of everyone here, I have been too busy doing what I like to do ( reef and wreck dives in fun places), rather than spend time doing what I ought to have been doing ( shooting videos that might cause a standard to be enforced, and might save a life some day)....
I have not dived the BHB since that post you mention...though my wife dives there almost every week, and I get horror stories from her and her friends there weekly.
Someone SHOULD be shooting VIDEOS of instructors and both good and bad classes at the BHB....this thread is one more reason I and some others, should spend some time with this.....
Respectfully YOU said you would do it AND would post it to prove YOUR point.... You said you would be able to do IT ANY TIME. The intervening MONTHS kinda prove either you weren't serious about it or haven't been able to prove your assertions...
You volunteered....
---------- Post added January 5th, 2015 at 10:16 PM ----------
Conconnan told me Utah is not Joint and Several, that each defendant will be assigned an amount based on their percentage of liability. If the instructor is found 30% liable, the parents 30%, and the Doctor 40% (except they have been dismissed) then the parents and Willis cough up 30% of the award. PADI has of course settled, and no further liability will attach.
Apparently in 1986 the legislature outlawed it but a case went up to their Supreme Court in 1998 and it was clarified in 1999 after the Courts muddied the water- so it constrains federal actions which must use local rules in cases like this.
Im a big fan of striking down joint and several liability - regrettably NY has an arcane system that permits it in the moneymaking auto accident field- trial Attorney lobby.
But one big reason PADI wants in for the trial is to defend its standards - so that a bad precedent doesn't result.
