Scuba Instructor Indicted over Student Death

April, 2008-

A Tusaloosa grand jury has indicted a former University of Alabama scuba instructor over the death of one of her dive students during a scuba diving class at the University in April 2007.

Allison Rainey Gibson has been accused of criminally negligent homicide in the death of 21-year-old Zachary Moore.

Christopher Moore, the decedents father, has filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Rainey Gibson, the company that employed her, and Scuba Schools International, the organization that certified her as an "SSI open water diver," according to published reports.

Zachary Moore died in April 2007 at the UA Aquatic Center during a drill involved removing his gear at the bottom of an 18-foot-deep pool, and coming up without it, reports allege.

An autopsy revealed Mr. Moore died of embolism associated with not exhaling upon ascent.

The Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court suit claims that Gibson was at the opposite end of the Olympic-sized pool giving private scuba instruction to someone not enrolled in the University or the class. The suit claims that Gibson had two assistants not certified nor trained to supervise the scuba drills the students were practicing in the pool that day. The lawsuit does not mention the university.

Also named in the suit was Scuba Schools International, the Denver-based scuba certification agency that certified Gibson to teach scuba classes, didn't adequately train Gibson to respond to the medical emergency.

Reports state that there were 20 students in the pool session. It is claimed that Scuba Schools International standards require that the maximum number of students for deep water training is eight to one, which can increase to 10 to two with a certified assistant or 12 to three with two certified assistants. The lawsuit states that the two assistants in class that day had only received Open Water Diver certification, not the Dive Control Specialist or Certified Assistant certifications required.

“They felt obviously that there was negligence on the part of the instructor that rose to a criminal level,” said Capt. Loyd Baker, commander of the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit.

UA stopped offering the scuba class after his death, said UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen. Gibson was contracted to work for the university, Andreen said, and no longer teaches there.

Criminally negligent homicide is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Remember, a grand jury indictment is when the district attorney presents a case against someone, and that person nor his or her is not present to rebut any of the allegations.

What do you all think of this? Should the instructor be held accountable? Would even being present have prevented this? If the instructor to student ration was kept at SSI standards, would this death have not occurred? Is the attorney just nitpicking at technicalities as if a violation of such were responsible for this death?

Comments?

Wow, that is bad.

Honestly, while I am sure everyone will have their own opinion on this one, I strongly feel that the information given is not nearly enough to make a determination as to weather or not the instructor or any of the others named in the suit should be held accountable.

My first thought is that everything we do involves risk. I feel that people (here in the USA) are quick to try any risky activity, but when something goes wrong they are not willing or able to take the blame for what happened. They always want to blame and sue someone for what happened.

Just thinking if Zachary Moore did not participate in this risky activity, then he would still be here today. It is a very unfortunate thing, but it was the choice he made and the risk he was willing to take. Obviously the defendants had no intention of anything happening to any of the students, furthermore their main mission is to do things as safely as can be done.

The instructor Gibson failed to maintain the standards she was required to by the training agency, SSI. She had unqualified training assistants, she was not present to oversee the skill her student was performing, and she exceeded the allowable student to instructor ratios (she had too many students, and she was off teaching someone who wasn't even on the course!). The victim may have died anyway: assuming he had been told not to hold his breath and he failed to follow instruction. Whether this is because the unqualified teaching assistants didn't know to tell him that or it was his own error the report doesn't say. But Gibson's failure to stick to the standards would make her "criminally negligent", wouldn't it?
Plus I think common sense and morality should've kept the instructor from doing what she did. What a thing to have to live with on your conscience.