Court clears diving instructor of responsibility in death of Polish man

A diving instructor has been cleared of all criminal liability in the death of a Polish man on an expedition to the Um-El-Faroud wreck.

Przemyslaw Jan Walkiewicz died in April 2016 while diving with a group of experienced scuba practitioners who had drifted off course after being forced to resurface prematurely due to one of them having insufficient air. While some of the divers managed to swim ashore, others had to be rescued by helicopter.

The victim was unconscious when he resurfaced and all attempts by the instructor, Paulina Kurowska, to administer first aid and CPR were unsuccessful.

Pathologists later confirmed that the cause of death had been barotrauma due to very rapid decompression.

Kurowska was charged with causing Walkiewicz’s death through imprudence, carelessness or unskillfulness in her art or profession, or through the non-observance of regulations.

As the case was heard, a number of witnesses and documents showed that Kurowska had been leading a ‘very experienced’ group, some of whom were ‘rescue dive masters’.

The victim himself had 61 dives under his belt, with the deepest being of 29 metres. The dive, which was being led by the accused at Wied iż-Żurrieq, was to reach a depth of 25 metres.

The court observed that regular diving procedures had been followed, with divers being briefed before the dive and provided with a dive plan.

But one diver had unexpectedly needed to resurface, prompting the rest of the group to resurface at a place other than the predetermined exit point, which was a crucial factor in making the dive feasible.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech ruled that Korowska could not have foreseen that they would have to surface prematurely or that they would drift off course due to currents, which came into play only after they had surfaced.

The court noted that upon realising that the Polish diver had resurfaced unconscious, Kurowska had been “quick to embark on a series of knowledgeable and calculated actions undertaken in a bid to ensure his safety.”

“Her professionalism emerges from the fact that she was still instructing two of the divers as to the measures to be taken not only to bring Mr Walkiewicz safely to shore, but also to summon help. She was the last person to be brought to safety,” observed the magistrate.

The fact that the victim had ascended too rapidly, suffering barotrauma as a result, was not the fault of the accused, the court ruled, saying that there was “not a shred of evidence that the accused had been wrong in her assessment of the situation.”

The court ruled that, if anything, the accused was overly cautious when taking measures to avoid the risk of barotrauma occurring. “The fact that following a safety stop of three minutes, when requested by the deceased to wait for a further minute, another minute was added before leading her group to ascent, clearly militates against any negligence on the accused’s part which in turn heralded and brought about barotrauma which led to the sad demise of Jan Walkiewicz.”

Finding an “absolute lack” of a causal nexus between the death and the actions of the accused, the court proceeded to acquit her of all charges. Lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha were defence counsel.