What would you be willing to pay?

[covediver]

EDP24 - Diver's £200,000 rescue bill

Synopsis: Diver and girlfriend drift away and spend an "Open Water" night at sea. Diver sells his story to newspaper for reported six figures. Government now wants him to make a contribution toward the bill. How much would you be willing to pay?

This is more than an academic arguement. High risk behavior (climbing Denali, Mt Hood, etc) take a disproportionate share of the search and rescue budgets. These are high cost and high risk (to the rescuers) endeavors. Right now, rescuers are scouring Denali for two overdue climbers. The rescuers will always go out on the mission. But, when it is over and the survivor benefits financially from their ordeal, should the taxpayer foot the bill?

 

[RJP]

The rescuers will always go out on the mission. But, when it is over and the survivor benefits financially from their ordeal, should the taxpayer foot the bill?

I haven't kept up with ALL the details of this, but shouldn't the dive op that left them behind be the first people that get hit with the bill?

 

[deco_martini]

There are already threads about this on the forum. Some are accusing the couple of showing gross negligence in the way they became stranded. It isn't unheard of for local governments to make people pay for rescue searches where a hoax or gross negligence is involved.

To wrap up those other threads:
Some people think that if gross negligence was involved, they should be accountable
Some people are worried that legitimate accidents may become subject to fines or repayments

I think that about sums up what I've been reading.

 

[covediver]

Sorry. checked but did not see this explicit aspect of the story on other threads. I suggest that we terminate this one and go with the others.

 

[adjuster-jd]

WHere are the other threads relating to this incident. It was headlines on MSNBC today but I don't see a recent thread about this (or maybe I'm just not looking in the right place).

 

[Garrobo]

There was one like this the other day where the divers sold their story to a magazine and there was an uproar over it. Turns out that they were insured and it didn't cost the taxpayers anything. Good for them.