Filmmaker Rob Stewart's family files wrongful death lawsuit

[mderrick]

One of the benefits of CCR is they can enable new modalities for diving. The training standards for CCR specifies a minimum number of total dives and minimum number of total minutes, not how many per day.. that's controlled by decompression requirements and oxygen exposure limits.

Ironically, or humorously depending on how you want to view it, literally just today IANTD published a new training standard establishing a training limit of two deco dives per day.

 

[JohnnyC]

Ironically, or humorously depending on how you want to view it, literally just today IANTD published a new training standard establishing a training limit of two deco dives per day.

For all courses? Courses requiring decompression?

My IANTD full cave down in Mexico was often 3 or 4 dives per day. At less than 15m max depth for most of it, limiting to 2 dives per day on 1/6th's, then 1/3rd's, would be kind of silly. 1/6th's on AL80's is barely any time in the water.

 

[boulderjohn]

Ironically, or humorously depending on how you want to view it, literally just today IANTD published a new training standard establishing a training limit of two deco dives per day.

For all courses? Courses requiring decompression?

See bold above

 

[Stoo]

Family might have been counting on his income to live.

Rob's parents are wealthy... Rob was able to launch his career because he had financial support from his family. I am not aware of Rob being married or having children.

Knowing Rob (not well) and what motivated him in his work, and knowing that generally, "The apple doesn't fall from the tree..", I doubt that this about money. My guess is that any settlement would likely be used to further Rob's work.

We Canadians don't look at lawsuits as a way to get rich. We look at the them as a way to correct a wrong, and a way to prevent that wrong from happening again.

Well, most of us anyway....

 

[boulderjohn]

OK, I am not an attorney, and I know some attorneys are involved in this thread. I am going to make a layperson's understanding of the potential impact of IANTD's new standard on the case and invite more learned comment.

The existence or lack of existence of standards can have a major impact on a case. If I am instructor who carefully follows standards and am faced with a suit following an accident, the fact that everything I did was within standards puts major burden on the plaintiff to prove that what I did was unsafe and at least partially responsible for the accident. Because my actions were within standards, then there is a strong implication that everything I did was reasonable and within the best practices of scuba professionals.

If I violate standards, then the burden will be on me to prove that what I did was safe and within the best practices of scuba professionals. That will not be easy for me.

If there is no standard for what I did, then the plaintiff will try to provide evidence that what I did was unsafe, and I will have to respond with evidence that is is within the best practices of scuba professionals. What evidence might a plaintiff bring in the absence of standards? The near consensus in the ScubaBoard thread that 3 dives beyond 200 was too much would give them a wealth of possibilities. Another piece of evidence that they might bring up is the fact that IANTD belatedly created this standard, which indicates that they do not think 3 such dives are safe. I would have to respond in some way to all that evidence indicating that other professionals did not think it was safe.

 

[Stoo]

Can someone far more lawyerly than me explain why the family is looking for $15k in a jury trial?

I posted about this earlier... Rob's family is very wealthy. I am not aware of Rob having a spouse or dependents. This isn't about money I don't think. It's about fixing the problems that led to Rob's death.

 

[oldschoolto]

I posted about this earlier... Rob's family is very wealthy. I am not aware of Rob having a spouse or dependents. This isn't about money I don't think. It's about fixing the problems that led to Rob's death.

No... It's about blaming someone else for his death.... He seems to have been looking for a fast track to CCR and he got it... I have no horse in this race, but I think people should take responsibility for their own actions.. No facts have been officially been found yet...

Jim

 

[Stoo]

I don't disagree... Although as a newly minted trimix CCR guy, he was still very much in the learning phase. I think most would agree that the Instructor bears significant responsibility for what appear to be first dive post-certification.

 

[oldschoolto]

You go to driving school and drive to the test site... You pass the driving test and get your shiny new license... Get in the car and hit a parked car backing out !!! Who's fault is it... The driving instructor ? The State tester that just passed you ? Or you because you didn't look where the hell you were going...

Jim..

 

[Stoo]

You go to driving school and drive to the test site... You pass the driving test and get your shiny new license... Get in the car and hit a parked car backing out !!! Who's fault is it... The driving instructor ? The State tester that just passed you ? Or you because you didn't look where the hell you were going...

Jim..

I'm not going to get sucked into this pointless debate, but the obvious difference in your example is that the driving instructor isn't sitting in the backseat, effectively telling the new guy how to drive. Or do you really think Sotis just sat back and let Stewart manage the dives and make the decisions?

Your example isn't relevant for that reason, and I don't think that backing a car up is quite as complex as doing these dives.

Virtually everyone who knows anything about rebreathers, trimix, and that site agree that this third dive came to a predictable conclusion. I can't under any circumstances imagine it was Stewart's suggestion to "pop down" to retrieve a stupid hook. Someone make the brilliant decision to head down without much thought for the sake of a $200 hook and some chain, that could easily have been recovered the next day without risking two people's lives.

I am not saying Rob bore no responsibility, but of the two divers that did this dive, one of them would have been large and in-charge and I don't think that many would try to argue it was Rob.