Articles Posted in Cruise Ship Accidents/Incidents

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Over the last year, our Florida cruise ship attorneys have had the unfortunate task of discussing a number of incidents in which cruise ship passengers have been the victim of sexual assault or rape at the hands of crew members or other passengers.

Recent Incidents

Jamaican Flag

In February, we discussed an Inside Edition interview with a young woman who claims that she was held down by two crew members in their cabin and raped repeatedly onboard a Carnival cruise. In April, we talked about sexual abuse allegations against a Disney Cruise Line crew member who has been charged with two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation and one count of false imprisonment of a 13-year-old female cruise passenger.  Last year, there was an assault on a fourteen-year-old passenger aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Imagination by a security guard, and, in July of 2012, a 19-year-old man from Kentucky was charged with raping an 18-year-old aboard the Carnival Dream.

Now, unfortunately, another such incident has occurred, this time aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Sea, which docked in Jamaica earlier this week. According to a report, two U.S. “men were accused of raping a female passenger who they were partying with the night before on the vessel.” The sexual assault allegedly occurred in the every early morning when the cruise ship was sailing approximately fifty miles outside Jamaican waters.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from Jamaican police, is investigating the incident. This is a somewhat unusual situation, as the FBI usually does not become involved in cruise ship crimes until after the ship returns to a U.S. port.

Recently, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), conducted a review of compliance with the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, reporting that it had concerns about the usefulness the Act’s crime-reporting requirements.  According to the review, the reporting requirements of the CVSSA produce outdated statistics on only a fraction of crimes.

The CVSSA requires cruise lines to report crimes falling into eight categories to the FBI: homicide, suspicious death, missing U.S. national, kidnapping, assault with serious bodily injury, sexual assault, firing or tampering with vessels, and theft greater than $10,000.  According to the GAO, crime statistics are published by the Coast Guard on its website only after the investigations are closed.  This means that, between January of 2010 and September of 2013, only 81 of 287 required crime reports were made public.

Preventing and controlling crime on board ships is one of the biggest problems that the cruise ship industry faces.  Every year, dozens of cruise ship passengers fall victim to physical and sexual assaults onboard cruise ships at the hands of crew members and other passengers.

According to FBI statistics, in 2007, there were 207 criminal incidents reported by the U.S. Coast Guard and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) that year.  However, as this blog has mentioned, that number is likely much higher. At the time the report was issued in 2007, there had already been 41 reported instances of sexual assault accounting for fifty-five percent of the violent crimes that were reported.  Further, there were a reported thirteen assaults resulting in “serious bodily injury.”

Contact an Attorney Today

Cruise companies have a duty to provide a safe environment for their passengers and the failure to do so may entitle the injured party to compensation. The Florida cruise ship accident lawyers of Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and have been representing the victims of cruise ship crimes for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been the victim of a crime while on a cruise ship, contact the maritime attorneys of Gerson & Schwartz, P.A. today.

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Over the last year, our Florida cruise ship accident attorneys have discussed a number of incidents in which cruise ship passengers have been the victim of sexual assault or rape at the hands of crew members or other passengers. Several weeks ago, two U.S. men were accused of raping a female passenger aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Sea, which docked in Jamaica.

In February, we discussed an Inside Edition interview with a young woman who claims that she was held down by two crew members in their cabin and raped repeatedly onboard a Carnival cruise and, in April, we talked about sexual abuse allegations against a Disney Cruise Line crew member who has been charged with two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation and one count of false imprisonment of a 13-year-old female cruise passenger.

Recent Allegations

Now, according to an article published in the St. Kitts and Nevis Observer, a Carnival Valor crew member was taken into custody by St. Kitt’s Police and charged with raping a cruise passenger while the ship was in territorial waters of the island. Police have refused to release the alleged offender’s name because the victim is a minor. Upon inquiry, the local police would say nothing other than “someone has been charged for an incident.”

Recently, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), conducted a review of compliance with the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, reporting that it had concerns about the usefulness the Act’s crime-reporting requirements. According to the review, the reporting requirements of the CVSSA produce outdated statistics on only a fraction of crimes.

The CVSSA requires cruise lines to report crimes falling into eight categories to the FBI: homicide, suspicious death, missing U.S. national, kidnapping, assault with serious bodily injury, sexual assault, firing or tampering with vessels, and theft greater than $10,000.  According to the GAO, crime statistics are published by the Coast Guard on its website only after the investigations are closed. This means that, between January of 2010 and September of 2013, only 81 of 287 required crime reports were made public.

Preventing and controlling crime on board ships is one of the biggest problems that the cruise ship industry faces. Every year, dozens of cruise ship passengers fall victim to physical and sexual assaults onboard cruise ships at the hands of crew members and other passengers.

According to FBI statistics, in 2007, there were 207 criminal incidents reported by the U.S. Coast Guard and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) that year.  However, as this blog has mentioned, that number is likely much higher. At the time the report was issued in 2007, there had already been 41 reported instances of sexual assault accounting for 55 percent of the violent crimes that were reported.  Further, there were a reported 13 assaults resulting in “serious bodily injury.”

Cruise companies have a duty to provide a safe environment for their passengers and the failure to do so may entitle the injured party to compensation. The Florida cruise ship accident lawyers of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and have been representing the victims of cruise ship crimes for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been the victim of a crime while on a cruise ship, contact the Florida maritime attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. today.

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Over the last year, this blog has discussed on several occasions one of the most prominent problems faced by the cruise industry, onboard outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness. Each year, there are dozens of such outbreaks, including those suffered by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ Grandeur of the Seas in April, in which 111 of 2122 (5.23%) passengers and 6 of 790 (0.76%) crew; Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas in January, in which  630 of 3,071 (20.5%) passengers and 54 of 1,166 (4.6%) crew; and the Norwegian Gem in November, in which 111 passengers and 3 crew members (4.55% of the total number of people onboard) reported being ill with symptoms of vomiting and/or diarrhea. Our maritime attorneys are monitoring this information closely.

Blowing Nose

According to a recent publication by the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) the leading cause of norovirus, a common cause of gastrointestinal illness, is infected food handlers who work while sick and don’t regularly wash their hands. Despite this finding, and common knowledge that cruise ships are essentially floating restaurants, the report inexplicably concluded that one is far more likely to contract the norovirus in a restaurant than on a cruise ship.

The CDC report estimates that 20 million people get sick from norovirus each year, mostly from coming in close contact with infected individuals or by eating contaminated food. The report concluded that cruise ships account for only one percent of reported norovirus cases, while the other 99 percent of cases occur on land. Although this claim appears, on its face, to favor the cruise ship industry, it is likely misleading.

Assuming that the average cruiser spends one week each year on a ship, then 51 out of 52 weeks a year, or 98 percent of the time, that person is not on a cruise. This means that, each year, the person is much more likely to catch the norovirus while on land because they spend an overwhelming majority of the time there.

With regard to norovirus cases directly related to contaminated food, the CDC identifies ill cooks and waiters as the cause of the problem. The CDC report indicates that restaurant workers account for 70 percent of norovirus cases involving contaminated food, because: One in every five food service workers reports working while sick with vomiting and diarrhea and, food service workers practice proper hand washing only one out of every four times.

The CDC recommends that the best way to curb this problem is “requiring sick food workers to stay home, and considering use of paid sick leave and on-call staffing, to support compliance.” Obviously, this solution will not work on cruise ships where crew members live on the ship in close quarters.

Cruise lines have a duty to provide their passengers with a safe and sanitary environment.  Failing to establish and enforce proper cleaning and hygiene procedures may expose a cruise line to liability for negligence. As this blog has mentioned before, because cruise ship claims are subject to different laws and much shorter statutes of limitations, sometimes as short as one year, they are best handled by experienced cruise ship accident attorneys.

The Florida cruise ship accident lawyers of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and have been representing the victims of cruise ship negligence for over four decades.  If you or someone you know has been injured in a cruise ship accident or has been the victim of a crime while on a cruise ship, contact the maritime attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. today.

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According to a report from the BBC, Saga Cruises’ Sapphire cruise liner was left stranded off the Isle of Mull with 1,008 passengers and crew aboard after an electrical fire broke out over the weekend and knocked out the ship’s power supply. Our Florida maritime attorneys read the BBC report, which claimed that there were no injuries and the Coastguard was providing the ship support while the crew dealt with the problem.

Cruise Ship

Following the incident, Saga released the following statement via Twitter:

There was a small electrical fire in the engine room on the Saga Sapphire at 10am on 16th May. This was quickly and professionally dealt with by the crew. The ship is currently anchored, in fine weather, off the Isle of Mull whilst the damaged electrical panel is repaired and tested. Our priority is always to make sure our passengers and crew are safe and well.

The Saga incident is yet another in a seemingly never-ending string of cruise mishaps, made worse by cruise liners’ continued policy of denial and concealment of such issues. In March, Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas and the Navigator of the Seas had problems returning to port. The Adventure of the Seas lost propulsion after the cruise ship’s “fixipod” leaked oil and barely made it to San Juan and the Navigator of the Seas was unable to make port on time due to an oil spill caused by a collision between a ship and a barge.

Cruise Ship Crime a Problem as Well

As this blog recently discussed, although some cruise liners are now volunteering statistics regarding the safety of their vessels, those companies are unscrupulously artificially deflating crime numbers and diluting crime statistics through several underhanded tactics. According to an article published in the New York Times last year, cruise incidents are much more common than commonly perceived, citing the following statistics:

  • Between 1990 and 2011 there were approximately 79 fires onboard cruise ships and, until 2006, there were three or four fires each year.
  • Between 1972 and 2011, 98 cruise ships ran aground, an average of 2.5 ships each year.
  • Between 1980 and 2012, sixteen cruise ships sunk. Although sinking of cruise ships is becoming more rare, such incidents can be devastating, as demonstrated by the catastrophic crash and sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2012, which resulted in the deaths of thirty two individuals and injuries to dozens of others.

Cruise companies have a duty to provide a safe environment for their passengers and the failure to do so may entitle the injured party to compensation. Despite enhanced safety measures and new policies designed to ensure passenger safety, cruising can be a risky activity.

The Florida cruise ship accident attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and has been representing the victims of cruise ship accidents for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been injured in a cruise ship accident, contact the Florida cruise ship attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. today.

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Our Florida Cruise Ship Attorneys have dedicated their decades of experience to representing cruise ship passengers that are injured by the acts or omissions of the cruise ship industry and its employees. This past Tuesday, the New York Times published a short editorial discussing the questionable actions of South Korean ferry captain, Lee Jun-seok, in abandoning the ship while it sank with hundreds of passengers still aboard. The South Korean ferry, Sewol, turned on its side and sank last Wednesday, leaving two-thirds of the 476 passengers dead or missing. So far as we know, none of those aboard included American citizens.

South Korean Flag

Captain Lee and two-thirds of ferry’s crew survived, many of whom, including Lee himself, jumped ship shortly after it began to go down. According to reports, only one of the ferry’s 47 lifeboats was deployed, and the order to abandon ship wasn’t broadcast until 30 minutes after the ferry began to sink. One crew member claimed that an immediate evacuation was not conducted the ferry’s officers were attempting to stabilize the vessel. To date, Lee and six crew members of the Sewol have also been arrested, with others under investigation. South Korean law allows for an individual convicted of abandoning passengers at a time of crisis to be punished by life in prison.

The tragedy of the Sewol casts the spotlight back on the cruise industry, especially given the similarity of the allegations against Lee to those asserted against the captain of the Carnival cruise ship Costa Concordia in 2012. In one of the worst cruise disasters in history, the Costa Concordia crashed into the rocks off the coast of Giglio Island, Italy, resulting in the deaths of 32 individuals and injuries to dozens of others.

Carnival and ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, took heavy criticism for the botched evacuation efforts, which involved suffered from significant delays, allegations of bribery, and the captain’s early abandonment of the ship. Schettino is currently on trial in Italy for causing a shipwreck, manslaughter and abandoning ship.

As this blog recently discussed, although some cruise liners are now “volunteering” statistics regarding the safety of their vessels, those companies are unscrupulously artificially deflating crime numbers and diluting crime statistics through several underhanded tactics. According to an article published in the New York Times last year, cruise incidents are much more common than commonly perceived, citing the following statistics:

  • Between 1990 and 2011 there were approximately 79 fires onboard cruise ships and, until 2006, there were three or four fires each year.

  • Between 1972 and 2011, 98 cruise ships ran aground, an average of 2.5 ships each year.

  • Between 1980 and 2012, 16 cruise ships sunk. Although sinking of cruise ships is becoming more rare, such incidents can be devastating, as demonstrated by the catastrophic crash and sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2012, which resulted in the deaths of 32 individuals and injuries to dozens of others.

Cruise companies have a duty to provide a safe environment for their passengers and the failure to do so may entitle the injured party to compensation. Despite enhanced safety measures and new policies designed to ensure passenger safety, cruising can be a risky activity.

The Florida cruise ship accident and personal injury attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and have been representing injury victims  for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been injured in a maritime or cruise ship accident, contact the Florida  injury attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, PA today.

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Saturday, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ Grandeur of the Seas returned to Baltimore from a seven day journey during which a number of passengers suffered from a gastrointestinal illness causing symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.

Sick in the Bathroom

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) officially issued a cruise ship illness outbreak alert for the ship, on which  111 of 2122 (5.23%) passengers, and 6 of 790 (0.76%) crew, reported falling ill with symptoms of vomiting and/or diarrhea. The CDC still has not officially announced the cause of the illness, but our Florida maritime accident attorneys are waiting with anticipation for a discovery.

According to the Outbreak Alert, Royal Caribbean took the following action to deal with the outbreak:

  • Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures.

  • Made announcements to onboard passengers of the outbreak, as well as encouraged reporting of symptoms and hand hygiene.

  • Collected stool specimens from ill passengers and crew to send to a CDC lab.

  • Consulted with the CDC on plans for a comprehensive sanitation procedure upon making port in Baltimore, which included: additional cleaning crew to complete a thorough super-sanitization cleaning and disinfection; staged disembarkation for active cases to limit illness transmission; and terminal and transport infection control procedures.

The outbreak aboard the Grandeur of the Seas was small compared to other such epidemics that have occurred recently. According to another CDC Outbreak Alert, in January, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas suffered from the largest gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on a cruise ship in 20 years, with 630 of 3,071 (20.5%) passengers, and 54 of 1,166 (4.6%) crew falling ill.

The issuance of Outbreak Alerts such as these is part of the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (“VSP”), designed to prevent and control the transmission and spread of gastrointestinal illnesses aboard cruise ships. Gastrointestinal illnesses can cause vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, dehydration, and, in very serious cases, death. Despite the CDC’s efforts to improve cruise ship health and cleanliness, violations occur often on many cruise ships.

Part of the problem is the fact that many passengers afflicted with gastrointestinal illness are unable to leave their cabin due to their symptoms or don’t want to risk being quarantined by the ship’s crew. Because these passengers don’t report their symptoms, the seriousness of an outbreak can be diminished.

Cruise lines have a duty to provide their passengers with a safe and sanitary environment.  Failing to establish and enforce proper cleaning and hygiene procedures may expose a cruise line to liability for negligence. As this blog has mentioned before, because cruise ship claims are subject to different laws and much shorter statutes of limitations, sometimes as short as one year, they are best handled by experienced cruise ship accident attorneys.

The Miami personal injury lawyers  at Gerson and Schwartz, PA specialize representing cruise ship passengers in a variety of settings. Our  lawyers are also licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and have been representing the victims of cruise ship negligence for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been injured in a cruise ship accident or has been the victim of a crime while on a cruise ship, contact the Florida maritime attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. today.

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Over the weekend Royal Caribbean’s was struck another blow when two of its ships, the Adventure of the Seas and the Navigator of the Seas, had problems returning to port. The Adventure of the Seas lost propulsion Saturday night after the cruise ship leaked oil and barely made it to San Juan on Sunday. Navigator of the Seas was unable to make port on time due to an oil spill caused by a collision between a ship and a barge. Although the ships were delayed for different reasons, the handling of the incidents by Royal Caribbean is causing the company huge headaches.

Cruise ship

It would appear that neither passengers arriving to board the Adventure of the Seas in San Juan, nor those entering Houston to embark on the Navigator of the Seas were advised of the ship’s delays. One of the most common complaints about cruise industry is the cruise lines are woefully unprepared to deal with emergency situations onboard their ships. Further, when problems arise, passengers are kept in the dark as to the nature, extent, and possible duration of any complications. It would appear that Royal Caribbean remains among the ranks of those cruise lines that has failed to develop sufficient procedures to effectively communicate with its customers, both onboard and on ground.

Royal Caribbean’s recent woes are yet another in a seemingly never-ending string of cruise mishaps, made worse by cruise liners continued policy of denial and concealment of such issues. As our cruise ship accident attorneys recently discussed on this blog, although some cruise liners are now volunteering statistics regarding the safety of their vessels, those companies are unscrupulously artificially deflating crime numbers and diluting crime statistics through several underhanded tactics.

According to an article published in the New York Times last year, cruise incidents are much more common than commonly perceived, citing the following statistics:

  • Between 1990 and 2011 there were approximately 79 fires onboard cruise ships and, until 2006, there were three or four fires each year.

  • Between 1972 and 2011, 98 cruise ships ran aground, an average of 2.5 ships each year.

  • Between 1980 and 2012, sixteen cruise ships sunk. Although sinking of cruise ships is becoming more rare, such incidents can be devastating, as demonstrated by the catastrophic crash and sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2012, which resulted in the deaths of thirty two individuals and injuries to dozens of others.

Cruise companies have a duty to provide a safe environment for their passengers and the failure to do so may entitle the injured party to compensation. Despite enhanced safety measures and new policies designed to ensure passenger safety, cruising can be a risky activity.

The Miami, Florida personal injury lawyers of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts, and have been representing the victims of cruise ship accidents for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been injured in a cruise ship accident, contact the Florida maritime accident attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, PA today.

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Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) commenced a forum in Washington D.C. to address a number of issues related to the cruise ship industry. The meeting will be attended by NTSB representatives, Coast Guard officials, representatives of the International Maritime Organization (“IMO”), and members of the Cruise Line International Association (“CLIA”), the organizer of the meeting. Our Florida cruise ship and maritime accident attorneys have been monitoring the forum for any developments.

Cruise Ship

According to a NTSB spokesman, the agency regularly holds forums addressing safety issues, but is the first in which the cruise industry has been the focus. The spokesman commented, “Because the cruise ship industry is worldwide, and has sort of a diverse oversight structure that’s international in scope, we felt that maybe we could add something to the conversation by bringing everyone together.

Although topics to be addressed at the meeting include regulation of the industry accident investigations ship design and fire protection and emergency response, the International Cruise Victims (“ICV”) a prominent non-profit organization advocating for cruise safety, was not permitted to send representatives to the forum.

The exclusion of the ICV from the meeting may be related to the turmoil caused by the organization last year following the announcement by several major U.S. cruise companies, that they would voluntarily report cruise ship crimes and man overboard situations ahead of the passage of the legislation.

Following a hearing in front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean, released their crime statistics dating back to 2010. After the announcement, the ICV issued its own press release, claiming that the cruise companies were artificially deflating their crime numbers and diluting their crime statistics.

Although not represented at the forum, the ICV submitted a 51-page report on safety, operations and oversight, and issued a press release expressing disappointment at being excluded, stating “the victims and the maritime experts working with ICV should not be excluded because they have much to contribute to understanding the safety issues on cruise ships.”

Despite a number of enhanced protective measures and policies designed to ensure passenger safety, cruising can still be a risky activity. Cruise ship accidents are becoming more and more common and don’t only occur while at sea, rendering the need for experienced legal counsel for those injured in such accidents more important than ever.

Cruise ship accidents must be handled differently than ordinary personal injury cases, because they often arise under a different type of law, such maritime, admiralty, or contract law, and are subject to much shorter statutes of limitations to pursue a claim, sometimes as short as one year. Further, cruise companies often utilize various tactics to delay litigation, resulting in the degradation of evidence and, in certain cases, loss of the right to compensation.

The Florida maritime attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts, and have been representing the victims of cruise ship accidents for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been injured in a cruise ship accident, contact the Miami, Florida personal injury attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, PA today.

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Our Florida Maritime Attorneys have dedicated their decades of experience to representing cruise ship passengers that are injured by the acts or omissions of the cruise ship industry and its employees. However, as this blog discussed last month, on occasion, it is one of the cruise ship’s crew that is injured by the negligence of a cruise company.

Sunset

Generally, cruise ship crew members who are injured on the job are protected by the provisions of the “Jones Act,” as long as they fall under the legal definition of “seamen.” The Jones Act provides that a seaman that is injured as the result of the negligence of an employer or co-worker on a vessel may recover two different types of financial compensation from their employer known as “maintenance” and “cure” benefits. “Maintenance” requires the cruise line to continue paying a crew member wages in the event an on-the-job injury prevents the individual from being physically able to work, while “Cure” is the obligation of the cruise line to provide a crew member with medical care in the event an injury is sustained in the course of employment.

Recently, the protections offered to cruise crew members by the Jones Act have been threatened by proposed legislation, H.R. 4005. Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 6, 2014, H.R. 4005, entitled the “Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014”, for the most part, regulates various aspects of how the Coast Guard conducts its business.

However, buried in the bill is a provision that would prohibit a seaman who is a citizen of a foreign nation from bringing a claim for damages related to personal injury, illness, or death under U.S. laws if said seaman: (1) was not a resident of the United States when the claim arose; (2) the injury, illness, or death arose outside U.S territorial waters; and (3) the seaman had a right to seek compensation under the laws of the nation in which the vessel was registered or in which the seaman maintained citizenship.

If passed, this provision would essentially prevent foreign cruise ship employees from filing lawsuits in the U.S. courts to recover for injury or illness incurred while working on a cruise ship. Although headquartered in the U.S., many cruise ships are actually registered in foreign countries. For example, a large number of cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas, including all of Royal Caribbean’s 22 ships, Norwegian Cruise Lines with 10 ships, and Carnival, with 6. This means that, under the provisions of the proposed law, foreign crew members working on Bahamian-registered ships would be required to bring lawsuits either in the Bahamas or in their country of citizenship. Not only does this measure unfairly discriminate against foreign crew members, but it encourages cruise lines to avoid hiring U.S. citizens, because it does not have to worry about being sued in U.S. Courts by non-citizen crew members.

The Miami personal injury lawyers of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts and have been representing crew members and cruise ship employees injured at sea for over four decades. If you are a seaman or crew member that has been seriously injured on a cargo ship, cruise ship, or sustained an offshore injury, our Florida Maritime Attorneys are here to help.

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Recently, our Florida Cruise Ship Accident Attorneys have been watching several different situations in which cruise lines have been implicated in cases of potential medical negligence and wrongful death.

Stormy Sky

In January, this blog discussed an unfortunate incident involving the death of a 72-year-old passenger aboard Carnival’s Sun Princess ship, which led the Australian authorities to launch a formal investigation. In that case, Betty Virgo was refused overnight medical supervision by ship’s staff and ended up dying the next day. Virgo’s body was returned to several days later, but it had been embalmed without an autopsy. Carnival denied that its medical staff was negligent in treating Virgo.

Now, Carnival is back in the news as a Chicago Tribune story discusses the sudden and mysterious death of a 29-year-old man while cruising last month. According to the story, John Perricone started feeling ill on February 19th. When Perricone had trouble walking the next morning, he visited the ship’s doctor. While in the infirmary, Perricone began to convulse and died shortly thereafter. According to authorities, foul play is not suspected in Perricone’s death and his cause of death has not been determined, pending an autopsy from the medical examiner’s office in New Orleans, the ship’s home port.

Under Florida law, physicians, hospitals, and other medical professionals owe their patients a duty to act with a certain level of care generally accepted within the medical industry. When medical professionals fail to satisfy this duty, the resulting negligence may result in liability for medical malpractice.

In the event a passenger dies aboard a ship, the cruise line is required to adhere to certain procedures. First, the cruise line must contact the deceased’s next of kin and report the death to federal authorities, including the FBI and Coast Guard. Although foul play is not suspected in Perricone’s case, the cruise line should have taken on the responsibility of determining whether any other passengers were suffering from similar symptoms.

The cruise line is required to store the deceased’s body and arrange to have the body transported upon making port. Usually, the body will be held onboard until the ship makes port in the U.S.; however, if the cruise line transfers the body in a foreign port, the deceased’s family may have to cover the expense of transporting the body home.

Although no medical negligence may have occurred in Perricone’s case, it is in his family’s best interest to contact an experienced cruise ship attorney to discuss their rights. Cruise ship cases must be handled differently than ordinary personal injury cases, because they often arise under a different type of law, such as maritime, admiralty, or contract law, and are subject to much shorter statutes of limitations to pursue a claim, sometimes as short as one year. Further, cruise companies often utilize various tactics to delay litigation, resulting in the degradation of evidence and, in certain cases, loss of the right to compensation.

The Florida cruise ship accident attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. are licensed to practice law in all of Florida’s state and federal courts, and have been representing the victims of cruise ship accidents for over four decades. If you or someone you know has been injured in a cruise ship accident, contact the Florida maritime accident attorneys of Gerson and Schwartz, P.A. today.

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