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As others have pointed out, as much as we the divers need to learn all there is to learn from the WPB accident, I see no point in involving the gas suppliers and the general public. Maybe a lame analogy, but still: If three persons die in a car crash (happens all the time, to the extent that nobody except the bereaved feels it's a big deal), the guy at the gas pump would not be asked questions of why he filled the tank. Didn't he suspect they were reckless drivers? Didn't he understand they might be going to abuse that fuel and go speeding? Of course not, he couldn't know and at any rate it's none of his business! Why are the commercial gas suppliers any different than your local gas pump? They all supply the juice and it's up to the buyer to use it wisely. If commercial gas suppliers have anything to fear regarding abuse of their products the legal system has truly gone awry. Logically, their only concern should be to ensure that their products are made to specifications. If it says "helium, 99% purity" and that's what is, their responsibility ends right there. However, in practice companies like to play it safe. Frivolous law suits abound and too often they seem to stick. Since this is diving -- pretty exotic stuff by definition, the way most people see it -- it's even more important to stress where the responsibility lies. It should be made very clear that if there's any law suit pending the only party that may be at fault is the training facility. If not, we may get all kinds of concerned citizens/well-meaning senators trying to impose limits on all gas diving. And, we get the gas suppliers worrying about being dragged into this even though there's no rationale whatsoever for them being blamed. The concerns and responsibility are limited to: 1) The adequacy of training and planning of the dive, 2) The gear configuration and choice of equipment and 3) The basic design and possible misapplication of one particular life-support product. Three people are dead. We can't bring them back. However, we as technical divers can learn from this. The general public, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to learn. Let's focus on what the Technical Diving Community can do and leave the state of Florida out of it. On the positive side, I believe the main lesson has been learnt already. I doubt there'll be any more overweighted wetsuit divers with insufficient wing capacity and little bottom gas at 250' in the near future. I think all parties have got that message albeit in the hard way. Just my .14 krone thrown in, regards Hans-Petter Norway -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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