NANNY STATE: Diving boards deep-sixed by fears of litigation
By John David Powell (06/27/06)
Here's a tip for you before you take that big leap off the swimming pool diving board. No, it's not to make sure your suit is snuggly in place; although, yes, that is an important tip.
The tip before you go running toward the end of the pool and leap off the diving board is to make sure there is a diving board. Chances are the pool police removed it.
Steve Moore, a member of The Wall Street Journal’s ( www.opinionjournal.com ) editorial board found out his swim club’s three-meter board was a death trap when he took his kids for a swim and saw the big, sad empty space where the traditional springboard used to lure unsuspecting children as a siren would a sailor.
Moore discovered the cause of the disappearing diving board, at his club and at pools across the land, is that dark specter lurking in the shallow end waiting to surface in the form of a trial lawyer. Moore tells us in his column that diving board accidents are rare, especially when compared to injuries from playing football or riding bicycles or walking across the street; however, when they occur, even if there is no negligence on anyone’s part, somebody’s gonna get stuck with at least a $5-million judgment.
Diving-board sales have plunged since Shawn Meneely (www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0709/078.html) won $6.6 million from a trade association after a “suicide dive” into a neighbor’s pool left him paralyzed from the neck down in 1993. Meneely was a teenager when he decided to do a look-ma-no-hands headfirst dive into the water. His family sued the pool builder, the diving board manufacturer and the National Spa & Pool Institute (www.nspi.org), or NSPI.
NSPI was a third defendant in a suit about two decades earlier, which resulted in judgments against a pool builder and a diving board manufacturer. NSPI settled out of court for $450,000.
After that 1970s case, NSPI hired a researcher to look at the issue. The result was a report that identified those at high-risk for diving-board injuries as tall, athletic, and relatively heavy young males. A second report published in 1980 found that diving-board victims probably didn’t know the possible associated risks, and it included a recommendation for an industry-initiated public awareness campaign to encourage proper caution and training. The trade association came up with Steer Up (http://www.poolspanews.com/2004/012/pdf/012diving.pdf), but according to a 2004 online article in Pool & Spa News (www.poolspanews.com), the educational campaign did not fully explain the dangers of diving, which hurt NSPI in court.
NSPI also set voluntary safety standards covering nearly every variable associated with pool diving, but trade association standards do not carry the force of law and do not protect the groups from litigation. The resulting lawsuits and media stories caused insurance carriers to raise rates, which in turn, forced risk-averse swimming clubs and homebuilders to abandon the diving board.
This means the days of the adrenaline rush and the belly flop may be numbered at the Palestine Regional Medical Center’s (www.palestineregional.com) Shooting Stars Camp for kids with asthma or diabetes. The Palestine Herald (www.palestineherald.com) reported this week about the Texas camp and one delighted 7-year-old who jumped off the diving board after passing his swimming test.
It also means New York Magazine might find itself as a defendant because it mentioned the diving board at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center Pool in its summer guide for parents (www.nymetro.com/guides/summer/17431).
By now, you may be asking why everyone must suffer because a few individuals (in relation to the millions of folks who dive into pools, lakes, rivers, and oceans every year) become unfortunate accident victims. The easy answer would be to blame it on attorneys. So, let’s take the easy route. I did, and I found InjuryBoard.com, a web site funded by law firms.
Here, one can read interesting questions, like the one from a parent of a 14-year-old daughter paralyzed after landing on her head while doing a flip from a deck into a shallow pool. The parent wants to know if they can still collect money even though the daughter knew she shouldn’t be flipping into the shallow water.
Or, the parent whose son was drinking and broke his neck while doing a sailor dive into a friend’s pool. The parent is concerned the son’s drunken state might impair his ability to win a judgment.
And, another parent asks if seven years is too late to sue for a pool injury, and who gets the money if they win, the child or the parents?
I particularly like the person trolling for any money unique to swimming accidents.
I discussed this issue with the boys down at Sparky’s Diner who thought about it and pointed out something I did not uncover during my extensive research. The problem, they said, is not dumb people doing dumb stunts. The problem also is not diving boards, scratchy ropes, or old tires. The problem is the one thing common in every diving or swimming accident, be it in the backyard, the community pool, the lake, the river, or the sea.
The problem is water. Get rid of the water and you get rid of the problem.
Hey, it makes about as much sense as the guy who wants to sue because he slipped in a large puddle of water at poolside.
Mundus vult decipi
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