Dive injuries that occur because of malfunctioning diving equipment are some of the most serious accidents. Part of a dive boat owner or employer’s owner duties towards his employee is to provide well designed equipment made by reputed manufacturers, which meets all safety standards.

An employer may be negligent in a diving accident if he is found to have

• Failed to provide well designed, safe equipment
• Failed to undertake proper maintenance of the equipment, resulting in malfunctioning
• Failed to train employees to use equipment properly
• Failed to monitor for recalled products or dangerous products leading to divers using unsafe gear

Any of these failures can prove fatal to a diver. If divers are using new equipment, then they must be trained to use the gear before they are sent down into the water. Dozens of feet below the surface is not the place for a diver to figure out that his equipment is beginning to fail, and he doesn’t know what to do to correct it.

However, a diver may be required to inspect his gear before he begins to dive to make sure it is functioning properly. Fortunately, the Coast Guard specifies the kind of diving equipment to be used, and sets safety standards for gear.  Diving employers and dive boat owners are required to provide their workers with gear that meets these requirements.

As a maritime lawyer who represents injured victims of diving accidents, I frequently come across divers who have suffered serious injuries, including brain injuries and paralysis, because of the negligence of an employer. The water can be a hostile environment, but there is much an employer can to do make sure his workers is protected in these hazardous conditions. Running out of air, suffering a panic attack, feeling disoriented, nauseated, and completely confused as decompression sickness sets in – none of this should have to happen to a worker because his employer failed in his duties.

Maritime lawyer Brian Beckcom is a Board Certified trial lawyer, whose primary focus is the representation of injured Jones Act seamen, commercial divers, Tankerrmen, galleyhands, deckhands, drillers, oilrig workers and offshore workers in maritime accidents in Texas, around the country and in international waters.