this doesn't seem right

[deepstops]

It seems South Korea is as litigious as the USA:

Agency Blamed for Drowning(The Korea Times)
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Seoul Central District Court ruled Friday that a travel agency is obliged to take 30 percent responsibility for a customer's death while on scuba diving trip. It also ruled that the company should pay 140 million won to the victim's family in compensation.
In 2006, a Korean male who was on his honeymoon was found dead on a beach _ drowned after swimming out of his depth. Witnesses testified that the male did not participate in the scuba diving because of his poor swimming ability. He was allegedly left behind alone on the shallow beach.
The court ruling said: ``The travel agency is in charge of guaranteeing the safety of customers including those who give up joining the scheduled program. The company should shoulder the responsibility and compensate for the death.''
But the court also agreed that the deceased had been partially responsible for behaving carelessly by not remaining in a safe place despite knowing his incompetence at swimming.
The ruling that a travel agency is responsible for an accident caused by a customer's carelessness once again stresses that customer safety is a matter of top priority in tourism, experts said.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr

 

[z3r0c00l]

Just dumb.

 

[S. starfish]

I'm beginning to see trend here.
In 90% of the courses I teach that have Korean people in them, at least one fails the swim test or the float despite warnings on the first night that there will be a 10 minute float and a 200 meter swim and if anybody in the class can't swim they should let me know and we can do them at the end of the confined water session to give them time to learn.
Record for shortest time in the water before having to be rescued from the bottom of the pool - less than 20 seconds.

 

[z3r0c00l]

wow 10 min. float is hard for skinny guys like me I would probably have to do laps for that one.

 

[NEWIN50]

Not too surprising, in a culture where they say what they think you want to hear, not necessarily the truth, and if they are incapable of something (swimming skill), will not admit it because they would be "loosing face".
I wonder if the travel agency was Korean.

 

[Cacia]

That percentage of culpability was used here too when a lady physician died of a heart attack while diving. (certified already). The court found the operator, the bc manufacturer, both shared a portion of the "fault". It's bizarro world now, folks.

 

[fisheyeview]

Looks like we have a candidate for the Darwin Awards.

 

[tiretread]

That's unbelievable.

 

[Sasquatch]

The world has become too relient on lawyers that have been conditioned to put blame on the party most likely to pay off.

We should evolve...eventually.

 

[DiverBeth]

One thing I don't like about these stories is that many of the facts of the case are left out. Now just for the sake of disclosure I am an attorney though I haven't practiced for some time. With that being said these missing facts usually add up to either there was someone other than the victim with some fault but more likely the unfortunate victim was careless and/or stupid. :11:

Sasquatch is right the world has become too conditioned to rely on lawyers and trying to put the blame elsewhere. When you screw up accept that you screwed up no one is perfect (except maybe me ) however if your screw up, intentional or not, causes others harm accept the blame and do the right thing..