Cruise Ship Accidents/Incidents

Criminal Acts at Sea

August 3, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Cruise ships are not always about welcome drinks, sundecks, and romantic dinners under the moonlit night. There are, unfortunately, many serious crimes that can occur on board a cruise ship, no matter how secure you think you may be. Petty thefts, serious assaults, battery, and even rapes have been reported on cruise ships. In fact, over 950 cruise ship crimes were reported to the FBI between 2011 and 2012, and those are only the crimes that the FBI is aware of. Unfortunately, many crimes, especially sexual assaults, go unreported. Our team of Miami maritime lawyers are here to help and have handled many cases for victims of serious criminal acts while on board a cruise ship or other vessel.

Get Treatment, if Needed

If you or a loved one are the victim of a physical assault or rape by a fellow passenger or crew member, seek immediate medical attention. Cruise ships should have trained medical professionals on board to provide treatment. Be sure, once you return to land, to get copies of the medical records so you can provide them to the authorities and to your attorney. This will help established that the incident occurred if a claim is pursued against the cruise liner and/or an employee of the liner.

Cruise Ship Injuries Can Happen Any Time

July 28, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Cruise ship accidents can happen anytime, anywhere, without any prior warning whatsoever. Take, for example, the recent incident involving the Royal Winner Princess II party cruise ship, which hit the Carolina Beach Wildlife Fishing Pier on July 11, 2015 injuring 15 passengers on board. At least two passengers had to be taken off in stretchers under emergency circumstances with neck braces. In spite of all the modern scientific technological advancements, human error accounts for more than eighty percent of cruise ship accidents, according to official reports from the U.S. Coast Guard. Loss of concentration often results in overlooking submerged obstacles lying ahead, like rocks or icebergs, and panicked manoeuvring the huge vessel at the last moment often proves fatal and overturns the ship altogether – injuring passengers on board. As experienced maritime lawyers, we want our readers to understand and be prepared for a serious cruise ship incident.

Important Steps Any Cruise Ship Accident Victim Needs to Take

If you or a loved one gets hurt while on a cruise ship, be sure to report the incident immediately to a crew member or other administrator (be sure to get their full name and contact information). Take photos, record videos, and get the names of any witnesses. You want to have documentation reflecting when and where the incident occurred. Once you have safely returned to land, a written notice of intent to file a claim according to the terms of your cruise ticket is necessary (a maritime lawyer can help with drafting and sending this letter).

More Details Revealed About Horrific Cruise Ship Attack

June 22, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

A lawsuit based in maritime has been filed in the brutal beating of a cruise passenger that we mentioned on our blog a few weeks ago. With the filing of the lawsuit, the victim’s attorney has revealed the carelessness of the cruise line that contributed to the vicious attack. Our Florida maritime law firm is monitoring the case closely.

The Horrific Attack

The case stems from a Holland America cruise ship passenger was brutally beaten by a Holland America employee, who apparently had a master key and used it to gain entry into the victim’s cabin. The employee tried to strangle the woman with a phone cord, smashed her with a laptop and other blunt objects, and even tried to throw her overboard. She was also sexually assaulted. At one point, her oxygen supply was completely cut off from the choking. The entire attack lasted about an hour, until the victim managed to escape the cabin into the hallway.

Food Safety on Cruises is Often Overlooked

June 1, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

If you are a passenger on a cruise, you may be aware of a number of potential hazards (especially if you are a regular reader of this blog). You may be aware of slippery floors, excursion accidents, mechanical failures, and a number of other possibilities. But one thing we don’t give much thought to is food safety. How safe is the food that cruises are serving?

Report Looks at Cruise Food Safety

ProPublica has looked into this issue in a fascinating, interactive page that allows viewers to look at safety from each aspect of a cruise ship, from the kitchens to the pools to everything in-between. The site also allows you to search for the safety record for a particular cruise ship, although bear in mind there is no obligatory safety reporting required of cruise ships, so the database may not be completely reliable.

Just When You Thought Onboard Cruise Safety Couldn’t Get Worse…

April 16, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Just when it seems that the cruise industry really can’t ignore common sense safety precautions any more than they have already, new information comes out guaranteed to surprise anybody with a modicum of common sense. This time it has to do with national news reports revealing the lack of safety precautions used by cruise ships at their onboard pools.

Report reveals Lack of Lifeguards

An NBC News Today Show report recently revealed that many cruise lines have no lifeguards at or around their onboard pools, despite more than 1.5 children million cruising every year (although lifeguards are a safety precaution for all passengers, not just children).

Transport On and Off a Cruise Ship Can Be Dangerous

April 10, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

If you have ever been on a cruise, and the ship visited ports of call, you may have noticed that in many cases, the countries you visited did not have easy transport from the ship to land. In fact, in many cases, there may not have been any access at all, but rather you may have had to board smaller ships to take you to the mainland from the ship and back again.

This is quite common. Unfortunately, a recent tragedy is highlighting what a cruise line’s duty is with respect to these transports.

Accident Happens While Getting Off Ship

Medical Malpractice on a Cruise Ship May Now Be a Viable Claim

January 30, 2015 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

If you’re on a cruise ship, and you’re injured as a result of medical malpractice, federal law which governs injuries at sea has been fairly consistent that you cannot recover damages against the cruise line as a result of the negligence.

There have been all kinds of excuses to deny recovery under a malpractice theory. One shouldn’t expect the same medical care on a ship as they do on land. Cruise ships are not floating hospitals, and shouldn’t be held to a medical malpractice standard the same way real medical facilities are. Or, the doctors on the ship are independent contractors, and thus, the cruise ship can’t be responsible for their negligence.

But a recent case now seems to be turning the law around, providing medical malpractice victims at sea a possible remedy under federal laws.

“Flags of Convenience” are a Dangerous Loophole for Cruise Passengers

December 10, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

When you take a cruise, you may or may not notice the flag flying on the top of the ship. If you look, you’ll notice the flag usually isn’t an American one. And if you listen to cruise commercials you may hear the words “ship’s registry,” followed by the name of a country. Likely, you don’t know what that means or how it affects you. But it has a huge impact on cruise safety, and there’s a good reason that you don’t see many flying under the American flag.

What is a Flag of Convenience?

The flags that fly on cruise ships that are from foreign countries are often called “flags of convenience,” because by sailing under them, ships become the territory of that nation, and thus avoid U.S. laws regulations, and taxation. A ship only has to follow the labor codes, environmental rules, and safety standards, of the nation they sail under—almost all of which have lesser and weaker standards than in the U.S.

Employees Injured at Sea Have Different Rights Than Those Injured on Land

December 3, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

We speak a lot on this blog about injuries to cruise line passengers, and injuries that happen on leisure cruise ships. But injuries can also happen to employees at sea also. Employees can be those on a large cruise line, but they may also include those working on private vessels, smaller touring ships, ferries, or fishing and work boats.

Injured workers at sea have much greater protections than workers on land, subject to state law, would have. Here’s a quick rundown of how federal law differs from state law when it comes to helping employees injured at sea get recovery for their injuries.

Recovery for Negligence

Yet Another Cruise Norovirus Outbreak Reminds Us Of Inherit Cruise Risk

November 19, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Well, it’s happened again. Although we seem to be told repeatedly by the cruise industry that norovirus outbreaks are sporadic and preventative measures are improving, in seems that once again, a cruise ship and its passengers have fallen victim to an outbreak.

Princess Cruise Suffers Large Virus Outbreak

This time it was a Princess Cruise line that experienced the outbreak. The cruise, leaving from Los Angeles, to Hawaii and then Tahiti, suffered an outbreak that affected 172 people on board. Most of the affected were passengers, but 14 crewmembers were sickened as well. The CDC, which conducted an immediate testing of the vessel, confirmed the outbreak was indeed norovirus.