Knoebels sued over diving accident at Crystal Pool

Let me be the first to say that, I don't care where you are, common sense tells you that plunging head first into ANYTHING is probably putting you at some risk.

God, when will these people stop?

Obviously, not a whole lot of information on the particulars here. I've never swum or dived at Knobel's so I can't comment on the safety of the set up.In general though, this sounds like the kind of lawsuit that has caused the almost total disappearance of spring boards from pools. Diving is inherently not the safest activity, kind of like skiing, skateboarding, or bicycling. If you don't know that, you must be borderline catatonic.

One thing that I can say for certain. If he hit his face on the bottom of the pool, his hands were in the wrong place. You enter the water hands first, and you don't pull back until you've more or less leveled out. I'm a lousy, but cautious diver. I've had friends who were competitive divers. Hitting the board or hitting the water wrong is usually a much greater threat than hitting the bottom of the pool.

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher 6/14/2004 1:19:18 PM ***

This is clearly not the guy's own fault. The guy had been diving numerous times, and it was only the last time when somehow he smacked the bottom of the pool did he get injured. Either he carried a lot of weight down to the bottom, or the water was too shallow. I think this is more of a fault with Knoebels then the guy himself, especially if they don't have a sign that states they aren't responsible for accidents while diving, and any other warning signs. The guy was diving as allowed by the park, and he got hurt because their diving pool is too shallow.

This guy is probably some traier park hillbilly. Why didnt he get drunk and wrap his car around a telephone pole, and then try to sue the automaker and the car dealer for not warning the car could not be driven while intoxicated.

On the other hand, for as bad as he is claiming it is, $50,000 is not a lot of money these days. If he was injured as bad as he claimed, one would think he would seek more. Many professions pay more than that a year.

I hit my head under my computer desk when I was installing my DSL this past weekend. I'm suing both the maker of the desk, and Verizon, as nobody told me I could hurt myself while installing computer components. You would think they would put a label on the desk. You would also think Verizon would mention the danger in their installation packet, or at least in their commericals! The pain only lasted a minute, but I am now afraid to go under a desk for the rest of my life, fearing a much more serious injury.

McD, I can only hope you are being sarcastic.

As usual, all of the experts come out. We don't know how deep the pool is, whether or not its depth is marked, or if it's deep enough for a high board.

No, but we know he chose to dive. That's all that really matters in my book. If he chose the action, he needs to be responsible for the results. If I was going to dive into a pool, I'd sure as heck make sure I knew the depth before I went diving on in.

Some activities have inherent risks, and there should be a ban on lawsuits involving them. I read last week about a woman suing the Red Sox because she got hit by a foul ball. How many people per GAME are hit with foul balls across America, and yet she somehow deserves money for it? Are we going to have to put up liability signs at park basketball courts next? "Well, the park didn't warn me that I could sprain my ankle while playing basketball.

EDIT: Something else I want to add is: Every time a person or business gets sued, that person or business automatically loses. Even if they win the court case, they're still stuck with thousands in court fees and lawyer fees. For a place like Knoebel's, how many lawsuits can it withstand before it's forced to close?*** This post was edited by Den 6/14/2004 12:23:59 PM ****** This post was edited by Den 6/14/2004 12:24:17 PM ***

All I'm saying is that we don't have enough information.

The highest board at the Crystal Pool is around 3 meters (it says so on the side of the board), and I believe the deepest part of the pool is 12-14 feet, which is also marked. He must have been carrying a lot of weight to go all the way down to the bottom of the pool and hit his head...*** This post was edited by TalonJosh1491 6/14/2004 12:32:01 PM ***

Years ago Knoebels had a much larger high dive but they took it out for reasons like this. I'm pretty sure that high dive was 20 or 25 feet.

If the kid was injured so badly why would they only sue for $50,000? I'm sure that would only possibly cover medical bills. If that is the case and Knoebels is found guilty they are getting off pretty easy.

Again, I don't know the Knobel's set up, maybe someone else can provide details. A search of the standards revealed about what I remembered for minimum depths, 8 feet for a 1 meter board, and 12 feet for a 3 meter board. NCAA standards were somewhat deeper for the 1 meter board at 11' minimum. For you techies:
Minimum Preferred
1 meter spring board 11' 11'6"
3 meter spring board 12' 12'6"
5 meter platform 12'2" 12'6"
7.5 meter platform 13'6" 14'10"
10 meter platform 14'10" 16'5"
The last time that I was diving off a 3 meter board (2 years ago) was in 15-18 feet of water, (this deep because it was next to a high diving platform tower for competition), and I seem to remember that it took an extra strong stroke in addition to my momentum to just touch the bottom when trying to reach it.
*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher 6/14/2004 1:57:04 PM ***

The complaints the article talks about...numbness/tingling/etc are all worth well more than $50,000 in today's environment. There is more to this story than the article indicates.

P.S. For those of you upset with the lawsuit happy society you should check out the front page of the USA Today from today. Apparently doctors are refusing to treat certain lawyers in many incidences.

What I remember the Crystal Pool from last year is that you have to be careful going down the slide. It's fairly shallow there. I went off both of the diving boards and don't remember having any problems. As for warning signs, I don't recall any (I'm not saying they weren't there), but I think that the act of diving by its very nature carries risks.