A Westmoreland County jury will begin deliberations Friday to determine if a Washington Township couple is responsible for injuries that left their son’s best friend paralyzed after he broke his neck in 2013 in their backyard swimming pool.

Lawyers for Michael Fraser, 29, of Vandergrift contend Robert and Laura O’Black ignored a warning label when they allowed a 5-foot rubber raft to be used in their pool and were negligent by not disclosing its dangers to guests.

“What matters is they put the raft in the pool and they covered up the warning,” Fraser’s lawyer, Mike Calder, said Thursday in his closing argument to the jury.

Jurors heard three days of testimony in the trial that will determine who was responsible for Fraser’s injuries.

Witnesses said Fraser, then 21, was hurt when he jumped off a diving board and onto the raft, described in testimony by the O’Blacks as an item purchased to be towed behind a boat but instead was used as a feature in their swimming pool.

Witnesses said Fraser was propelled off the raft and into the water and struck his head on the bottom of the pool in an area between its deep and shallow ends.

His lawyers argued the O’Blacks covered up a warning on the raft that advised it not be used for diving.

The raft and its cover have since been disposed of and were not introduced as evidence during the trial, according to Fraser’s lawyers.

Throughout the trial, O’Black family lawyer, Robert Loch, suggested Fraser’s own actions that day led to his injuries.

Witnesses, including O’Black’s son and three other friends, testified that Fraser jumped off the diving board and onto the raft.

But each gave a differing description as to why Fraser dove, how he landed on the raft and what he did just before he entered the water.

Fraser testified he did not recall the details of how he was injured.

“It was his choice, and it was not foreseeable,” Loch argued. “Just because someone else, an adult, made a series of bad choices, that shouldn’t be on their heads.”

Fraser is seeking monetary damages. Medical experts on his behalf testified his past and future care carries a price tag of up to $9 million. Fraser also is seeking additional unspecified money damages from the O’Blacks.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr. will give jurors final instructions Friday morning, after which deliberations are slated to begin.

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