Falling into Dive Boat

[merxlin]

God, I love divers. We must be the last group of people in the U.S. with any common sense.

You wrote that after or before reading a great body of these ScubaBoard posts?

Remember

any common sense

does not mean a specific quantity other than none..............

Can the boat captain sue the diver for messing up the deck if he bled?

 

[vladimir]

My questions in regards to this accident.
1. Is the dive boat operator liable for this accident?
2. Is the resort property owner of the pier liable?
3. Is nature liable for this incident ?

4. None of the above. But nature has excellent liability protection--it doesn't care. Your boat operator probably has pretty good protection too, in the waiver you signed.

No i wasn't tippy toeing or pussy footing to get in the boat it happened really fast. As a result from my fall into the boat i severly fractured my tibia plateau that required a bone graft and screws to repair it.

Sorry about your accident. The combination of a serious injury and a ruined dive trip must be pretty frustrating.

Never once did i say that i was out out to sue anyone for this accident.

Why did you ask who was liable? It is certainly reasonable to assume that you are considering legal action, isn't it?

If you nothing good to say don't post it.

It's a discussion board. When you solicit opinions, you get them.

I suppose now since i posted this i will take more of a backlash about what happened.

The backlash you are receiving is a general disgust among many Americans at the pervasive abdication of responsibility in our society. Coupled with constant pleas for financial help from the rest of us, it is frustrating to watch the seeds of failure take firm root.

 

[irishsquid]

Sorry to hear about your injury. I can't speak for everyone on the board, but I don't believe anyone here wishes upon you injury.

...Never once did i say that i was out out to sue anyone for this accident. .

Not directly, but this is the internet and text is all that can be interpreted. Read your following quote and think about how that sounds.

My questions in regards to this accident.
1. Is the dive boat operator liable for this accident?
2. Is the resort property owner of the pier liable?
3. Is nature liable for this incident ?

 

[james croft]

Looks like you don't have a leg to stand on....

 

[Jim Lapenta]

If you don't want to get the kind of feedback you got then don't put stuff like this in your first post:
"My questions in regards to this accident.
1. Is the dive boat operator liable for this accident?
2. Is the resort property owner of the pier liable?
3. Is nature liable for this incident ?"

What did you expect? In this sue happy society we live in this is the kind of stuff that makes people get all riled up. Especially when there is no blame to be assigned to any outside entity. Stuff happens. This was nothing more than an accident. Had you come on and introduced yourself and said "Oh by the way this is what happened to me" and left off the last part you most likely would have gotten a totally different reception. But coming on and asking who is LIABLE? Not a great way to get sympathy from this crowd.

Want some friendly advice? Get out there and dive alot more. Do some local stuff. How long before this trip were you last in the water? That is usually one of the biggest causes of incidents. Too much time between dives and not enough experience in different environments. Or not enough training to know that sometimes the best dive is the one you don't make because it's out of your comfort zone in some way. Learning to say "not today" has saved many divers accidents like you had.

And fact is you got alot of "honest feedback". Probably more honest than you could handle it seems. This is the Dr Phil of scuba message boards. "If ya can't take the heat, don't turn on the oven(said in a Texas drawl)". You're lucky you didn't post this on The Deco Stop. They aren't nearly as nice as this group.

 

[flaski]

Recently I was on a 5 day dive trip. On the second day of the dive trip,while getting on the dive boat at the pier, it was apparent that the water was very rough and surging at the pier and also on the dive boat. After I handed my dive equipment to someone on the dive boat,I stepped onto the boat with my right foot and leg,as I was preparing to put my left foot and leg onto the dive boat trying to gauge the surge and my timing to step into the boat the dive boat surged to the bottom of the wave,and I fell into the boat.It was apparent as I fell into the boat that my left leg and knee twisted as I fell into the dive boat. As a result of this accident I suffered injury to my left leg and knee and was unable to dive the rest of this trip. At the top of the seawall at this resort they had a glass railing that a couple of glass panels were shattered by the surging wave action on this particular morning. Later that day the dive boat was to return to the pier from which it launched from to drop off divers that loaded the dive boat from that pier. It was decided it would be in the best interest of the divers that loaded at that site to be dropped off at another pier do to the circumstances that occurred earlier in the day with the surging of the waves and of divers being able to safely exit from the dive boat. It was apparent at this particular pier that divers exiting from the dive boat safely would not be attainable because of surging waves and the ability for divers to exit the dive boat without possible injury. Please any feed back would greatly be appreciated.

My questions in regards to this accident.
1. Is the dive boat operator liable for this accident?
2. Is the resort property owner of the pier liable?
3. Is nature liable for this incident ?

the operator of the trip, as well as the captain, of boat, mainly whom ever had extended a hand to accept you gear, and who they had been employed by, as well as the person and their employer that accepted your resevation. If they are smart, they will be offewring to pay all medical expences as well as offering you many trips at no cast. If conditions had been that rough they had no reason to be taking passengers out.

 

[diver 85]

IMO, money should not be awarded for being stupid......

 

[Spady]

I say sue, sue, sue! Take absolutely no responsibility for your own actions, especially when you can blame it on someone else. That seems to be the American way nowadays, isn't it?

(Our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves)

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Looks like you don't have a leg to stand on....

Oh that's, just, well....

To the OP: Very sorry you were injured.

I guess we've added insult to injury (but I think most did not realize how seriously you were hurt, and just reacted to the "liability" portion of your post).

I used to work as a deck officer on deep sea vessels large and small, have fallen more times than I can count... including between a tugboat and the dock when I tried to time a large surge and misjudged.... :shocked2: ..... I've "left a piece of myself" on many a seagoing tugboat, so I do sympathize with how easy it is to lose balance and fall.

The actual responsibility seems to be yours in this case. You mis-timed stepping onto the boat, and stepped when you needed to jump.

Best wishes.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

the operator of the trip, as well as the captain, of boat, mainly whom ever had extended a hand to accept you gear, and who they had been employed by, as well as the person and their employer that accepted your resevation. If they are smart, they will be offewring to pay all medical expences as well as offering you many trips at no cast. If conditions had been that rough they had no reason to be taking passengers out.

Are you freakin serious?! This is nuts! Whatever happened to personal responsibility? If conditions are rough it is up to the diver to decide whether or not to go out. What may be "rough" for "underwater tourists", "warm water wusses", and vacation divers may be fine for those of us who think 4-6 foot seas with a 7 footer thrown in once in awhile is no big deal. If the boat goes out it is up to the diver to decide whether or not to go.