Posted by Kendall Raine on November 10, 2000 at 15:19:59:
In Reply to: Re: Open Letter to MHK-Strobes in the Doria posted by mike on November 10, 2000 at 13:37:14:
Tough to prove anything. If you're dead because you got lost due to cut line, no witnesses-line could have been cut by abrasion. If you survive, the guy who cut your line can claim he got caught in the line and cut it to save his own life. Besides, people do leave lines in the Doria, so the presence of a line doesn't mean there's a diver at the end of it-lack of intent.
This happened to a friend of mine in 1992 on the Doria. A guy cut his line and later claimed the line was "in my way." My friend got out OK. He confronted the guy after the dive, but couldn't say much since the rule on that trip was progressive penetration-lines are there to be cut. On the next dive, my friend's buddy got off the line my friend laid to explore a china closet. He failed to T the line. My friend reeled out thinking his buddy already exited. The buddy went the wrong way in the wreck and ran out of gas.
Whether my friend's buddy failed to T the line because of fear his T would be cut isn't known. Running lines in a wreck where people regard lines as a hazard and cut them is suicide. Period. Forget the lawyers. Forget those types of trips.