Four years ago, off the coast of Maobitou in Kenting, Pingtung County, a diving incident led to the disappearance of divers. Rescue personnel later found the instructor surnamed Yang, but two other divers, a 30-year-old man surnamed Chiu and a man in his 50s surnamed Huang, were still missing. The families of the missing filed a lawsuit against the instructor Yang and the yacht captain surnamed Shen.
The Pingtung District Court determined that both failed to fulfill their respective duties of care, leading to the deaths of the two divers. They were found guilty of negligence leading to death. The instructor Yang was sentenced to 9 months, while the yacht captain Shen was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months. The verdict can be appealed
The Pingtung District Court’s verdict stated that on October 2, 2019, the instructor surnamed Yang took two diving clients, Mr. Huang and Mr. Chiu, aboard the Whale Explorer yacht driven by Captain Shen.
They departed from Houbihu Fishing Port and headed to the Maobitou sea area for scuba diving. The three of them did not resurface after the agreed-upon time. Captain Shen called the maritime patrol unit for assistance. At around 7 pm that evening, the instructor Yang was found off the coast of Eluanbi, but the other two remain missing to this day.
The verdict pointed out that Captain Shen did not equip nor provide Yang with waterproof communication equipment with satellite positioning. After Yang began the dive, he noticed underwater strong currents and decided to halt the dive.
He surfaced with Huang and Chiu and deployed a buoyancy bag to wait for the yacht to pick them up. Shen should have been constantly watching for the divers’ bubbles and estimating their position based on those bubbles and the direction of the current, following them with the boat to facilitate their boarding or provide necessary assistance. However, Shen did not follow the three with the boat, making them unable to board and continuing to drift at sea.
The verdict stated that when Mr. Shen noticed the three individuals had not returned to the boat on time, he did not promptly use communication and related equipment to call for help. Instead, he only searched for them by himself on the sea.
After more than an hour, he finally called the security inspection office for assistance. Mr. Yang was rescued and brought ashore that evening, but Mr. Huang and Mr. Chiu had been carried away by the current and their whereabouts remained unknown. Despite search and rescue efforts over several days, they were not found and are presumed to have died after drifting at sea for an extended period.
During the court proceedings, Mr. Yang claimed that the diving area was very close to the “Lei Dashih 雷打石” diving spot opened by the Kenting Management Office, and there were no explicit regulations prohibiting diving in that area. He also informed Mr. Huang and Mr. Qiu about the content of the waiver and liability exemption forms, asserting he was not at fault. Mr. Shen argued that he only piloted the boat based on Mr. Yang’s instructions and was only responsible for the safety of the divers while they were on the boat.
He couldn’t oversee their activities once they left the boat to dive. He kept an eye on and followed the bubbles the three divers produced after submerging. However, he could only watch and search the nearby waters when he no longer saw the bubbles and buoyancy bags. After unsuccessful searches, he did call the security inspection office for help, maintaining that he was not negligent.
The collegial panel believes that Mr. Yang, who possesses a professional diving license and engaging in diving activities with clients as his profession, and Mr. Shen, as the yacht captain and driver, whose business is to transport people for diving, should both exercise due diligence and care. However, due to their respective negligent actions, two individuals died.
Considering that Mr. Shen violated multiple duties of care and his negligence was more severe than Mr. Yang’s, both denied their offenses and have not compensated or reached a settlement with the victims’ families, they were convicted of manslaughter due to negligence. Mr. Yang was sentenced to 9 months of imprisonment, while Mr. Shen was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months. Both sentences are subject to appeal.