Engineer wins $1.68 million in scuba diving case

[alp227]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Daniel Carlock, a Santa Monica aerospace engineer, prayed to God not to let him die after he was abandoned floating in the ocean 12 miles off Long Beach by leaders of a scuba diving excursion. After nearly five hours, surrounded by thick fog, "I had this feeling my spirit was getting ready to vacate my body," he recalled.

On Friday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded Carlock $1.68 million in damages in his five-year legal battle against Venice-based Ocean Adventures Dive Co. and Long Beach-based Sundiver Charters.

The jury heard testimony that Carlock, who was 45 at the time of the 2004 incident, had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and developed skin cancer from exposure.

"It has been an ordeal," he said as he celebrated at a Newport Beach restaurant with his wife, Anne. "But I wanted to seek changes in the scuba industry. Others will benefit."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-scuba-verdict-20101024,0,7138808.story

[Suich]

1. Um-m-m-m...

No doubt the dive/charter companies were grossly negligent.

The article doesn't say how long it was before the Argus picked him up, but I doubt that the amount of time he spent in the water caused skin cancer.

Just my two cents...

:hide:

[pnwmom]

2. Even a single blistering sunburn can significantly raise your risk.

For some people, it could double it.

[AzNick]

11. Indeed. It is why I now avoid all exposure

I had a very bad sunburn in Mexico (after putting sunblock on my infant daughters I totally forgot about myself).

Anyway, since then I have been advised to NEVER sunbathe again, and if I swim, to put a ton of sunblock on, before and after.

Living in Arizona, people learn with time NOT to sunbathe.

The other thing is this, and which people who never got sunburned do not know: it hurts like a first to second degree burn, all over. It's a true test, believe me.

Good thing is that pain killers are available with no prescription in Mexico. I mean, good thing for me in this case.

[L.Torsalo]

15. I work daily

in the tropical sun in Central America. No sunblock, just a cotton shirt and a hat. I am skeptical about the claim that he developed skin cancer from exposure while bobbing about in the ocean. But courts are the arbiters of such disputes and they did award him his retirement nest egg...doesn't mean the physics of skin cancer has been established without a doubt. Exposure to the sun does also toughen the skin, tanning, and this shields the derma pretty well.

[blackbart99]

3. Really....

How hard is it to count to 20....or do a roll call. I'm a diver and I don't go on these cattle car boat tours for this very reason. When my wife was getting certified in Hawaii I was on the dives as well. When the instructor was done with her he told us to go back to the boat. Unfortunately they dropped us off and told us swim over there...downstream, which meant now we were swimming upstream in full gear. It took us 5 minutes to swim 30yards. We were exhausted. Against the current is the hardest swim of your life. We were just off Waikiki, this guy was many miles out in much stronger currents. Cramping is very common. The device to have is the air horn. It makes a sound everyone can hear. After losing your buddy underwater surfacing where you are at is the right thing yo do. These boat operators should be looking all the time all around the boat for people surfacing not just within 20 yards of the boat. They were lazy and they should pay. This guy was lucky to be found at all.

I pay extra for a private charter when I can. It's a lot easier to count to 2.

[harun]

17. My wife and I dove in the Philippines with a personal guide.

Nice that it is very affordable there to have such a luxury. Going with a big group scares the sh*t out of me, don't think I could do it as I am very nervous of the whole thing anyway. Growing up on a major rive and having my grandfather drown when I was young I know how much respect you must give the water and what can happen in a short time in it if things don't go as planned.

[MilesColtrane]

4. Reminiscent of the Lonergans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Eileen_Lonergan

[rpannier]

5. I'm surprised that it happened again in roughly the same area

In 2008 a scuba diving couple, Richard Neely and Allyson Dalton, drifted near the Great Barrier Reef for 19 hours before being rescued.
Thankfully both of these people were found safe

[underpants]

6. My wife watched "Open Water" and was shocked at the ending

not what she expected at all

Not the result (she knew that going in) but how it was depicted in the movie

[Blue_Tires]

13. i saw that as a first-date movie...

fun times...

[DiverDave]

7. He should get the company

Really? this is just too revolting to hear.
Leaving a guy is just moronic.

They got off lightly, imo.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Based on this comment alone, I'd hand Carlock the company.

Hewitt disagreed with the jury's decision to include future pain and suffering as part of the $1.68-million award. "He is married. He has a life and seems to be OK." .

What an ass.

[petronius]

9. Hand him the law firm, anyway - Hewitt does sound like a sore loser

I'm pretty skeptical about the skin cancer aspect (I'll have to ask my dermatologist next time I'm in), but as a diver I have little sympathy for the boat in this case. Even on the few SoCal boats I've been on, I've seen significant differences in how divers are accounted for going in and out, and there's no excuse for negligence in what is a basic part of the product...

[mudplanet]

10. Isn't this what insurance if for? Nowadays 1.5 million isn't a lot of money

for this type of liability. I believe the idea of the penalty is to force those sued to institute some procedure to prevent it happening again. Sounds reasonable to me. Really, the main thing you're paying a dive company and dive captain for is safety. Otherwise why not just rent a boat and go out by yourself.

I wouldn't dive in open water without a compass. You can swim twelve miles with fins in five hours. Fog is a bitch, though. You'd have to check your compass every few minutes or you'd be swimming in circles.

Of course, when I trained for my PADI certificate, one of the main things we were taught was to always have a dive buddy.

[jaksavage]

12. wetsuit

in cali he must have been wearing one.

[onenote]

14. it wouldn't protect his face.

As an experienced diver, my reaction to this story is that I'd like to know more. On the one hand, its completely irresponsible and unforgivable that the diver operator could have recorded this guy as present on the boat at the end of the first dive and again at the beginning of the first dive.

However, its a bit unclear to me what the guy's situation was vis-a-vis his buddy. Did he have one? Did he leave the buddy or vice versa? When he surfaced 400 feet from the boat, was he in front of the boat, behind it, or along side? There were 20 divers -- did he come up before them or after them? With that many divers in the water, typically you would have a number of divers near, but not right at, the back of the boat. If this guy was behind the boat, there should have been divers in the water closer than 400 feet. If he came up along side the boat or in front of the boat, its much less likely he would have been seen while the other divers were getting on board.

The award was reduced slightly because of some negligence on the diver's fault, I have no problem with that but would like more facts. But the bulk of the liability rests on the shoulders of the dive operator, who clear was negligent in its attendance taking and recording.

[hedgehog]

16. Even if the dive master couldn't count to 20, you'd think the dive buddy

could at least count to 1! Some buddy!