July 2011    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 26, No. 7   What's this?

Litigation: The Dive Industry’s Biggest Threat?

viewpoints by a British dive gear maker and an American lawyer

from the July, 2011 issue of Undercurrent  

Subscriber Content Preview
Only active subscribers can view the whole article here

We often discuss the effects of lawsuits on the dive industry. The most recent was in our February story "Who's Responsible for a Diver's Death?" in which we compared the U.S. with other countries in investigating and explaining dive-related deaths, and assigning blame. Martin Parker, managing director of the English rebreather manufacturer Ambient Pressure Diving, had something to say about the topic, based on his experiences in courts on both sides of the Atlantic. Below, he gives his opinion, referring to his experience being sued in the U.S. (read the details in our February 2009 story "Rebreather Firm Wins Its First U.S. Lawsuit) and how the trial shaped his view of the responsibilities of divers, equipment makers and the legal system.

We have been making dive equipment since 1969, and always knew the potential for a lawsuit, so when the dreaded American lawsuit came in 2004, one day before the statute of limitations ran out, it was really one of those things that "we knew would happen one day." The sad fact is that there are around 400 diving deaths globally, and just over 100 of those are in the U.S. Approximately 20 occur worldwide while using rebreathers of various makes.

With open-circuit equipment, investigations are often a straightforward affair, but that wasn't always the case. In the late 1950s, the original regulator was known as the "widow maker," but as the product becomes more widely used and people understand that there are a myriad of potentially fatal causes, there is less emphasis on blaming the equipment and more focus on what the diver did and why. Rebreathers have followed the same pattern....