Negligent homicide: Swiss diving instructor convicted over student's death

[leadduck]

Original report:

MSN

The case is a bit interesting regarding the responsibility. The fatally injured student was a PADI OWSI instructor himself, taking a class to become a PADI deep dive specialty instructor. But he had very little deep diving experience; only a handful of dives below 100ft, and only in warm sea water (the class was in mountain lake Thunersee). During class he started an emergency ascent that he didn't survive (AGE, unconsciousness, drowned).
He met the minimum requirements of PADI, and the court stated that there was no standards violation. However, the dive shop owner knew that the victim had very little experience, but didn't warn the instructor, who silently assumed that the student has more deep dive experience than he had, and didn't bother to ask because the student was a PADI OWSI already.
Both the dive shop owner and the instructor were convicted last week for negligent homicide. Not because they did anything wrong during the dive but because they enrolled a student with very little experience and didn't care. The court stated that the student himself should have known better, but also that PADI's minimum requirements are so weak that meeting them does not preclude negligence; you have to do more than that.

 

[BoltSnap]

This is just insane. It makes no sense and is contradictory.

 

[Alekseolsen]

How can PADI not be responsible in any way if their minimum standards can be trusted for anything?

 

[boulderjohn]

It is hard to tell exactly what happened from the article, but there was more to the verdict than in the OP summary. The accused instructor was said to have not been responsive to signs of difficulty and conscious signals made by the victim indicating trouble. He looked away from the student and did not see the beginning of the fatal ascent.

The last sentence I wrote reflects one of my greatest fears while instructing more advanced dives in low visibility. If a student loses buoyancy control and ends up shooting to the surface while you happen to be looking away, if only for a second, you will almost certainly be considered to be at fault.

The article also talks about the failure of the accused to do a proper assessment of the student's preparation prior to the class. That is something that is supposed to be done.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

For me.....a factor in this story is that the instructor who died had little to no experience in low vis or cold water.

I would equate it to learning to drive a stick shift truck vs an automatic. If you learn to drive on a stick-shift, then driving an automatic is a piece of cake. But if you get a drivers license on an automatic only, then you really have no business driving a stick shift.

 

[rx7diver]

I'm not sure I understand this. Student was a certified open water scuba diver (in fact, a OW scuba instructor), so he/she presumably knew to ascend slowly and to breathe normally (i.e., to not hold his/her breath), correct?

Diving to PADI Deep Diver depths is still diving no deeper than 130 ffw, correct? So, these two divers were diving within what used to be regarded as open water training limits, correct?

The course instructor didn't take the student diver into an overhead environment, nor into mandatory decompression, correct?

Perhaps the student was using gear different than "standard" PADI open water scuba diver gear, gear newly introduced for this course--maybe a drysuit, when he/she had only ever dove a wetsuit--but the OP's summary didn't mention this.

Maybe it's as simple as the student was in the course instructor's care during the course and, so, should have received a greater degree of monitoring and protection. Is this it?

rx7diver

 

[tursiops]

The article also talks about the failure of the accused to do a proper assessment of the student's preparation prior to the class. That is something that is supposed to be done.

Maybe it's as simple as the student was in the course instructor's care during the course and, so, should have received a greater degree of monitoring and protection. Is this it?

Yes, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to bash PADI, no matter what the facts are.

 

[happy-diver]

I wonder if the judges in these situations closest similar experience is stumbling to the toilet in the middle of
the night with power out, and what qualifies them to make judgement on anything other than qualifications

A clear position of the events that is not even available to you even if you were there, due to recall, or shock

No offence it is just people doing what people do like clutching at straws to make a culprit and punish them

 

[Sascha314]

Heard of it. Of course terrible that someone died. But also a bad message to how "taking care" is identified here.

I mean who can for every second guarantee to observe only the person - in fact there could be two students. As there has been obviously some report how the action unfolds, either by the condemned him/herself or another student. And another student then would be having the same right to be taken care of.

Well of course having people to advance much too quick beyond their capabilities anf experience is a problem, but also hard to quantify before.

So actually maybe there has been something deeper into, which is not explained to the public.

 

[BoltSnap]

What bothers me is that a "certified" dive instructor doesn't know how to dive deep (recreational diving depths). This same instructor/victim can't control their buoyancy and floats up to the surface, killing themselves. This incompetence from the student/instructor and whoever certified them as an instructor is too much.