05-29-2014, 02:31 PM
Oh believe me, a lawsuit can be found and filed - not necessarily won. It would be interesting to see what percentage of liability would be assigned to each party. The guy attempted a risky dive - and the result is that he killed himself trying to do it. On the other hand, it appears that there was no first response medically - so the question would be could his life have been saved or did he die in the water? Did he die as a result of being removed and moved without a backboard? As a result of no trained EMT on property, no lifeguard on property or no sufficient Defib equipment? There certainly is room to assign liability to both parties but my guess is that the big conglomerate that owns Ricks will throw money at the family to make sure this never hits a courtroom.
But...it should. If in fact Ricks was negligent in "promoting" a high risk activity with no property first response equipment or personnel this needs to be brought to light and corrected. People have been jumping off the cliffs of Negril for years - Ricks took this an extra step in 2004 when they rebuilt it from the ground up and re-engineered the cliffs to include 3 diving platforms and cleared rock and cliff wall to make that activity a bit "safer". Doesn't mean shit to a tree if you don't have a lifeguard on duty though.
Years ago a tourist jumped from a cliff at a smaller resort in Negril. He died, the family sued and everyone thought it was a lock on the resort's part because they had signs all over the place stating "jump at your own risk". Not so - the resort lost and had to pay up. In this case the resort had far less liability (it would seem) than Ricks does in this case. But all it would take is one inquest to say the kid died in the water and Ricks MIGHT be absolved of any liability - and then nothing would change at that place. I'm interested to hear the response not only from Ricks but from the other properties on the West End as to how this type of thing might be handled in the future.
But...it should. If in fact Ricks was negligent in "promoting" a high risk activity with no property first response equipment or personnel this needs to be brought to light and corrected. People have been jumping off the cliffs of Negril for years - Ricks took this an extra step in 2004 when they rebuilt it from the ground up and re-engineered the cliffs to include 3 diving platforms and cleared rock and cliff wall to make that activity a bit "safer". Doesn't mean shit to a tree if you don't have a lifeguard on duty though.
Years ago a tourist jumped from a cliff at a smaller resort in Negril. He died, the family sued and everyone thought it was a lock on the resort's part because they had signs all over the place stating "jump at your own risk". Not so - the resort lost and had to pay up. In this case the resort had far less liability (it would seem) than Ricks does in this case. But all it would take is one inquest to say the kid died in the water and Ricks MIGHT be absolved of any liability - and then nothing would change at that place. I'm interested to hear the response not only from Ricks but from the other properties on the West End as to how this type of thing might be handled in the future.
"Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right..."
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