Honest question for you dive masters instructors out there

[boulderjohn]

Dale, it may be stupid, but it kind of goes along the lines of someone idiot suing mcdonalds for spilling coffee in their lap while they are driving, and winning!!! Where do you sign a waver when you go in the drive thru and get your coffee???

The McDonalds case is possibly the most thoroughly misunderstood verdict in legal history, and it actually works against your argument. Read the linked explanation carefully--there is a good chance that if you were on the jury you would have agreed with the verdict.

When you are a customer of any business, you expect it to act within certain standards, and you act accordingly. When you buy coffee, for example, you expect it to be hot. You do not, however, expect it to be 40-50° hotter than the temperature at which coffee is normally served in restaurants. (There are many more details that you can find in the article.) When a company like McDonalds finds over the years that its policy of serving coffee 40-50° over normal serving temperatures produces hundreds of cases of serious 3rd degree burns, customers expect it would rethink that policy and make their product safer.

The famous Tina Watson scuba death story is a good example of this problem in diving. The dive operator had a set of its own policies to ensure the safety of its divers. In the case of Tina Watson, they did not follow one of their policies. She drowned on her first dive. Even though they had not followed that policy at the request of Tina and her husband (who insisted that their level of skill made it unnecessary), and even though the policy was not required by any law, the dive operator was found guilty of failing to provide the level of safety they advertised through their own policies and had to pay a hefty fine.

And Tina was dead.

 

[Wookie]

The moral of that story is, the customer is not always right, and it is the operator's job to educate them. If an education is not possible, it is best to smile and part ways. The other option is to have no safety rules at all. Unfortunately, that isn't an option today.

 

[DaleC]

There is another option.
Rather than assuming their responsibility directly by physically touching gear, provide clear prompts at key intervals for the divers to follow their training. Emphasize the need for pre-dive checks when you see divers donning gear and prepping to dive. When they step up to the gate, specifically ask them if they have turned on their air. Yes, No, Would you like me to check?
You've done your due diligence, you have not crossed the line in assuming their responsibility and that standard can be defended liability-wise.

 

[TMHeimer]

There is another option.
Rather than assuming their responsibility directly by physically touching gear, provide clear prompts at key intervals for the divers to follow their training. Emphasize the need for pre-dive checks when you see divers donning gear and prepping to dive. When they step up to the gate, specifically ask them if they have turned on their air. Yes, No, Would you like me to check?
You've done your due diligence, you have not crossed the line in assuming their responsibility and that standard can be defended liability-wise.[/QUOTE:

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Right. Another of way of putting it--like my first post on page 8. You would think that if someone's air was not on after them telling the DM it was, the buddy would most likely have heard the DM asking him if it was on (this may be necessary corraboration should the airless diver have an incident or drown).