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[balladofwindfishes]

What I'm saying is in both cases there are liability issues that can cause a lawsuit to the parent company. Regardless of right or wrong, the issue is liability. That is why these people are fired; not because the parent company wanted the person to drown. The problem is people can't separate the two. Morally it was the right thing to do, and everything turned out ok, but what happened if it didn't? The liability the parent company would be under is huge and that's why they have these policies that seem dumb to others. Let's say he went and saved the person and then someone drowned that was within his area that he's normally responsible for, you don't see how that is a problem? There are many instances where people don't do the right/moral thing to do because of liability.

So Liability > a human life?

No, it's not. And I hope you don't believe that. Save a life first, ask questions later.

 

[Marty Chinn]

So Liability > a human life?

No, it's not. And I hope you don't believe that.

No I never ever said that. I said it was the moral thing to do and he should be praised for it. On the otherhand, I understand why the company did it. Right or wrong doesn't always line up with the law or liability. There are many instances of right and wrong not matching the law. This situation is pretty much a Kobyashi Maru.

 

[bluehat9]

Probably would have been fired if he just sat on his lifeguard stand while the guy drowned too.

 

[Vermillion]

He's been offered his job back, but he probably won't return.

The Florida lifeguard who was fired after leaving his "zone" to help save a swimmer earlier this week will be offered his job back, the head of the company that fired him said Thursday.

"I am of the opinion that the supervisors acted hastily," Jeff Ellis told the Orlando Sun Sentinel. "It was not the appropriate course of action to take.

But according to the Associated Press, Tomas Lopez, the 21-year-old Hallandale Beach lifeguard, said previously he wouldn't accept an offer to return.

Lopez was fired on Monday after he left his station to help a man who had been pulled out of the water in an unprotected area of Hallandale Beach. According to the Sentinel, Lopez and an off-duty nurse tended to the man, a 21-year-old from Estonia, until paramedics arrived. The man—who is recovering at a local hospital—was in a "swim at your own risk" area of the beach about 1,500 feet south of the boundary lifeguards are expected to patrol.

"I was on stand, and guests came up to me and told me there was someone drowning, that people were screaming and so I started running in the direction," Lopez told NBC Miami. "I ran out to do the job I was trained to do—I didn't think about it at all."

Lopez' dismissal sparked near-immediate criticism; two fellow guards quit in protest.

"We are not a fire-rescue operation," Ellis told the paper earlier this week. "We are strictly a lifeguard organization—we limit what we do to the protected swimming zones that we've agreed to service." The company has provided lifeguards for the area's public beaches and pools since 2003.

"We have liability issues and can't go out of the protected area," Lopez's supervisor, Susan Ellis, told WPTV. "What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do."

"If we find our actions on the part of the leadership team were inappropriate, we will rectify it based upon the information that comes forward," Ellis added.

"We take the safety of all visitors to our beaches very seriously," Hallandale Beach City Manager Renee Crichton said in a statement. "Whether they are in a protected area or unprotected area, we believe aid must be rendered."

Source