The Role of Negligence in Commercial Diving Accidents
September 6, 2023 @ 4:07 pm
Many of our most dangerous, most profitable industries rely on commercial divers—skilled individuals who work deep beneath the water’s surface. Laboring in the water’s depths compounds the danger and complexity of just about any job.
However, all companies—from offshore oil and gas extraction, power plants, maritime shipping, and bridge and pier construction to salvage operations, commercial fishing, scientific exploration and rescue missions—have a responsibility to ensure that working conditions are safe.
Despite this requirement, commercial diving accidents happen, and people get hurt. Every single incident deserves examination to determine how negligence may have played a part, who needs to own that fault and who needs to make it right.
Understanding Negligence in Commercial Diving Accidents
When a diving accident lawyer looks at a potential case, they’re considering three crucial elements—duty of care, negligence and the parties involved.
Duty of Care. Employers owe their commercial divers and other employees duty of care. Duty of care is a term for the legal obligation that someone has to protect the people they employ, the people who use their services and the people who are exposed to their activities. Employers or businesses who fail to take proper measures to keep everyone associated with their operations safe may be found to be negligent, or responsible, if an accident happens and someone is harmed.
Workers also have a responsibility of duty of care toward their employers and fellow workers. This means that workers need to be respectful of safety protocols and follow set policies and procedures to keep everyone safe. As a rule, all parties have a duty of care to ensure that their choices won’t result in harm to someone else.
Negligence. Negligence can source from any number of things that were or were not done. The factors in establishing negligence center on proving four things:
- Someone had the duty of care to provide safe working conditions. It may be an individual, a contracting company, a subcontractor, a manufacturer or several parties, for example.
- The company or individuals that had the responsibility of duty of care failed to execute it properly. In short, they didn’t do something that they should have done, or they did something they shouldn’t have done.
- Someone got hurt or was harmed in some way.
- The harm that people suffered was due to the responsible parties’ failure to properly execute their duty of care.
The party charged with the duty of care is responsible for conditions that it should reasonably be aware of or be able to foresee. However, if something completely unpredictable happens, negligence may be difficult to prove.
Parties Responsible. The four elements of negligence may seem straightforward, but determining exactly who had the responsibility of duty of care when considering the relationships among the parties involved can become complicated. Various companies and managers, leasing operations, support vessels, equipment suppliers, contractors and subcontractors, repair and maintenance operations, service providers and even equipment manufacturers are just a few of the parties that may have played a part in an incident.
To add to the complexity, percentages of fault are typically shared out among the various parties shown to be negligent. Even the individuals harmed may be assigned a percentage of the blame if their actions or inaction contributed to an incident.
Causes and Forms of Negligence in Commercial Diving Accidents
Every commercial diving accident is unique in its circumstances and the injuries sustained. However, common causes of negligence identified in commercial diving incidents highlight not only the dangerous nature and demands of the job but also how important every detail regarding a specific incident may be. Every event must be evaluated thoroughly—from the actions of the single individual to those of the team, the supervisor and the company as well as the precautions, policies and procedures, and equipment particular to the work.
- Diver Negligence. Divers can put themselves and others at risk—intentionally or not. A diver may fail to follow established safety protocols like thorough pre- and post-dive equipment checks, for example, simply because everything was okay the last time it was used. A diver may misjudge the seriousness of a hazard or feel pressured to proceed despite a potential issue.
An important element that can override everything, however, is the fact that a diver may have inadequate preparation, training or experience for a task. Difference exists between a diver who claimed they were qualified to perform a task that they weren’t certified for and a diver who was pressured into a situation they hadn’t been trained to handle. - Dive Team Negligence. Commercial divers rely on their team to keep them safe—especially if something doesn’t go to plan. Many divers are tethered, dependent on a long umbilical breathing supply. Meanwhile, their dive tenders are usually operating on the surface. They may or may not be divers themselves, but they’re tasked with ensuring that all equipment is functioning as it should and monitoring conditions like weather, currents or other vessel traffic that could endanger a diver.
Problems can occur, however, to put a diver at risk. Lack of communication or misunderstandings can lead to communication breakdowns. Members of the team may not be clear on instructions or contingency plans. Communication methods—rope signals using pulls and bells, hand signals, torch signals, slates, voice communications and video—require that everyone remember established protocols and follow them. A lack of coordination among the team can prove fatal to a diver if tenders are duplicating some tasks while overlooking others or performing tasks out of sequence. Equally deadly can be individuals who simply neglect their dive team responsibilities. - Dive Supervisor Negligence. Dive team supervisors are typically responsible for everything from planning dive operations and conducting pre-dive safety briefings to ensuring equipment checks are complete, supervising the actual dive, and documenting all details in logs and associated records. They play an important role in keeping management apprised of operational details and any incidents or safety concerns as well as ensuring team members receive proper training and oversight. In short, they’re responsible for what their dive team does and ensuring their safety prior to, during and after each dive.
When supervisors fall short in their duties, a frequently cited source of negligence is a failure to intervene when team members under their supervision fail to follow proper safety protocols and procedures. Familiarity, routine, fatigue, procrastination or time crunches can result in a supervisor letting too many things slide. Oversight may be inadequate for a supervisor to ensure all team members are performing to standard, or time constraints may tempt management to cut corners or delegate responsibilities in inappropriate ways. If supervisors allow operations to deviate from approved methods of operation, they are liable for what happens. - Company Negligence. Companies have many administrative types of duties to ensure the safety of their operations and employees. Some of the most important ones are also expensive ones.
Companies must provide adequate training and resources appropriate to their divers, dive team members and supervisors at levels appropriate to their assignments and responsibilities.
Companies must budget appropriately, allowing for sufficient time, expenses, personnel, supplies and equipment. Cutting corners due to deadline or budgetary pressures is negligence.
Companies must provide and maintain equipment that is appropriate to the task and compliant with safety requirements.Unfortunately, many companies that are found guilty of negligence are often also found to be known repeat offenders. - Inadequate Risk Assessment. Every undertaking should have a formal risk assessment, but for it to be meaningful, it must address all aspects of an operation. Failing to identify and address all potential hazards in a diving environment only increases the likelihood of an accident. As cited in “Recommended Practices for Diving Operations,” published by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers,
All aspects of the work must be risk assessed, including the mobilization, demobilization, onshore trials and transit to site, scope of work, diving operational tasks, ERP [enterprise resource planning], diving system and equipment operation, ROV [remotely operated vehicle], and SIMOPS [simultaneous operations].
In addition, all personnel involved in an operation should review all phases of the risk assessment. This should include levels of management knowledgeable about the management and control systems to be used, subcontractors and specialists involved in the work, and third-party operators. If contractors change, the new party must be part of a new or revised risk assessment. - Inadequate Risk Assessment. Every undertaking should have a formal risk assessment, but for it to be meaningful, it must address all aspects of an operation. Failing to identify and address all potential hazards in a diving environment only increases the likelihood of an accident. As cited in “Recommended Practices for Diving Operations,” published by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers,
All aspects of the work must be risk assessed, including the mobilization, demobilization, onshore trials and transit to site, scope of work, diving operational tasks, ERP [enterprise resource planning], diving system and equipment operation, ROV [remotely operated vehicle], and SIMOPS [simultaneous operations].
In addition, all personnel involved in an operation should review all phases of the risk assessment. This should include levels of management knowledgeable about the management and control systems to be used, subcontractors and specialists involved in the work, and third-party operators. If contractors change, the new party must be part of a new or revised risk assessment. - Equipment Failures. As the Divers Alert Network Annual Diving Report 2020 Edition points out, “Diving accidents related to equipment failures can occur both in and out of the water.” While accidents that occur in the water often present the threat of drowning or a forced rapid ascent for the diver, out-of-water incidents can be a hazard to anyone nearby. Equipment failures are typically categorized as mechanical failures, fires or human-induced actions. However, the DAN report observes that human error often plays some part in the series of actions leading to an equipment failure and resulting diving accident.
Equipment can fail for any number of reasons—design flaws, for example, production flaws, inadequate operator training or skills, maintenance and care issues, carelessness or even issues beyond the victim’s control. A problem can be as complex as identifying the “premature degradation of low-pressure braided hose” or as heartbreaking as “mismatched threads in an assembly.” Because the possible causes of an equipment failure can be so varied, determining negligence and the party responsible can be especially complicated.
Commercial diving operations are dangerous undertakings, with commercial diving being one of the most hazardous professions. A safety-first mindset is essential for everyone—from company owners and upper management to dive team supervisors, team members and divers. Unfortunately, however, sometimes, safety doesn’t come first, and commercial diving accidents happen. Someone is injured, and someone is responsible, but exactly who that responsible party might be often takes a diving accident lawyer to identify and prove.
If you’ve been harmed in a commercial diving incident or if you’ve lost someone you loved in one, it’s time to reach out to the diving accident attorneys at Morrow, Morrow, Ryan, Bassett & Haik. We know that every detail matters. We want to listen to your story and get you the compensation that you deserve.
References:
https://lambertzainey.com/blog/commercial-diving-accidents/
https://www.usbr.gov/safety/rshs/documents/diving/DivingManual.pdf
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Commercial_diving/Diver_Communications
https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/country-sites/en_us/united-states/home/documents/products-and-services/pipelines/contractor-information/policy/diving-iogp-diving-practices.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582513/
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/personal-injury/elements-negligence/
https://www.maritimeinjurycenter.com/accidents-and-injuries/commercial-diving/
