by Bob Walsh
OK, this may be premature. When you have 34 dead bodies you can expect people in the US to take it seriously, even if it was a complete accident. That being said the FBI, the ATF, the Coast Guard and the U S Attorney's Office are definitely making a criminal probe into this incident. The feds executed a search warrant on Sunday on the offices of the dive boat operator. The search continued on into Monday.
Those supposedly "in the know" are saying that the investigation is focusing on whether or not a fire watch was set and whether or not a proper fire safety briefing was given. The legal basis is the Seaman's Manslaughter Statute, which has been on the books for over 175 years. It goes back to the early days of steam ships and was enacted to punish negligence on behalf of captains, pilots and engineers. The bar for prosecution is very low, it is only necessary to prove simple negligence. The law can be extended to corporate officers if "fraud, neglect, connivance, misconduct or violation of the law" can be proven. Failure to post a legally required fire watch would almost certainly meet this standard.
The law was written in 1838 and rewritten and made stronger in 1852. It has been used more widely in the 20th century than it was in the 19th.
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