Cruise Ship Accident Lawyer Blog

Carnival Cruise Lines’ Triumph Passengers Appear In Court For Lawsuit

March 5, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Yesterday, our Florida cruise ship accident lawyers reviewed a South Florida news outlet NBC 6 story reporting that a group of passengers that traveled on the now-infamous Carnival Triumph last year have appeared for the first time in court with regard to their lawsuit filed against the cruise line.

According to the lawsuit, these passengers are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from being stranded aboard the Triumph in February of last year after a fire knocked out the ship’s power. The ship drifted for four day without air conditioning, and limited lights, water, food and working toilets, before it was towed to Mobile, Alabama. Several dozen of the ship’s more than 3,000 passengers are participating in the civil suit, which refers to the Triumph as “a floating toilet, a floating Petri dish, a floating hell.”

Carnival initially moved to dismiss the suit, arguing that the passengers’ tickets clearly state passengers cannot file class actions. Judge Donald Graham overruled Carnival’s motion, opining that, although the ship ticket does not actually guarantee a seaworthy vessel, good food and sanitary conditions, Carnival was negligent in maintaining the equipment that caught fire.

Woman Sues Carnival Cruise Lines Over Alleged Rape By Crew Members

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

Last week, Inside Edition, published an interview with a young woman who claims that she was raped while aboard a Carnival cruise ship last year. According to 28-year-old Tristin, who asked that her last name not be disclosed, she was held her down by two crew members in their cabin and raped repeatedly. Our cruise ship attorneys in Florida have been watching this case closely for additional details to emerge.

Following the incident, Tristin reported the attack to ship security, prompting a breathalyzer test of the involved crew members. Tristin admitted to drinking that evening, but, contrary to the claims of the alleged attackers, the sex was not consensual. Tristin has filed a lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines, but Carnival is denying any wrongdoing and criminal charges have not been levied against the crew members.

Carnival issued the following statement with regard to the assault:

FBI Called In To Investigate Cruise Ship Drowning Incident

February 20, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Earlier this month, our Florida cruise ship accident lawyers saw a report on ABC News that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into an incident aboard a cruise ship which left one child dead and another hospitalized.

According to spokesman David Couvertier, FBI officials met Norwegian Cruise Lines Breakaway when it docked in Port Canaveral, Florida on February 4. Couvertier stated that the Breakaway was in international waters near Cape Lookout, North Carolina when a four and six year old boy were pulled from a swimming pool aboard the ship. The four-year-old boy died and the six-year old has been hospitalized at a North Carolina medical center.

The Breakaway is an 18-deck ship with a passenger capacity of 4,000 and has five waterslides, two swimming pools, and four hot tubs. According to a passenger, quoted in a CBS article, that witnessed the incident, there were no lifeguards on the pool deck and none of the crew present knew CPR. In a posting on its Facebook page, Norwegian maintained that the Breakaway’s emergency medical team responded to the ship’s pool deck and quickly administered CPR. The post claimed, “After extensive efforts, the younger child could not be revived.”

CREWMAN RAPE OF PASSENGER ON HOLLAND AMERICA CRUISESHIP

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

Media reports of unauthorized entry into a stateroom by a low level crew member, beating, forcible rape, attempted murder, and escape shock the cruising public.

Every cruise passenger lawyer knows there is strict liability for these harms. This means Holland America owes this passenger 100% of her compensatory damages.

Philip Gerson, Board Chair of the National Center for Victims of Crime and board member for International Cruise Victims organizations says this is not enough. “This victim should sue Holland America for punitive damages for misleading the vacationing public about the safety of cruising. Passengers at sea are in a jurisdictional vacuum and cruise lines refuse to undertake needed reforms to prevent these attacks.” Gerson, founding partner at Gerson & Schwartz in Miami said the Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA) should also be sued for promoting a disinformation campaign to mislead the public about the dangers of unskilled, poorly trained and inadequately supervised crew members who harm innocent travelers.”

Elderly Couple Assaulted Aboard English Cruise Ship

February 18, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Early this morning, British news outlet Gazette Live, reported that an elderly couple from Teeside, England, had been violently assaulted by a fellow passenger, whilst cruising on Thomson Cruises Thomson Celebration in January. According to the report, the woman suffered “serious spinal injuries,” while her husband incurred “serious facial injuries,” both requiring treatment at a hospital. Apparently, the couple’s attacker was permitted to leave the cruise shortly after the incident, and the cruise line did nothing to detain him. Cleveland, England Police are investigating what they are referring to as a “serious unprovoked assault”, but have not yet made an arrest.

As our Florida cruise ship accident attorneys have discussed before, 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.

Back in December, this blog discussed an assault on a 14-year-old passenger aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Imagination by a security guard. According to the victim of the alleged assault, the guard chased him into a stairwell and slammed him into a wall after witnessing the teen try to sneak into the ship’s nightclub. In July of last year, a 19-year-old man from Kentucky was charged with raping an 18-year-old aboard the Carnival Dream. These are just a couple of the dozens of crimes that are committed against cruise passengers each year.

CDC Declares Yet Another Outbreak Of Gastrointestinal Illness On Royal Caribbean Cruise

February 4, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Wednesday, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas arrived back in a New Jersey port after passengers suffered one of the largest gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on a cruise ship in 20 years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) officially issued a cruise ship illness outbreak alert for the ship, on which 630 of 3,071 passengers (20.5 percent), and 54 of 1,166 crew (4.6 percent), 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 CDC, one of its Vessel Sanitation Program epidemiologists and environmental health officers, along with another independent epidemiologist, boarded the ship while it was in port at St. Thomas, and travelled with the ship back to port in New Jersey. The CDC team conducted an investigation and environmental health assessment in an attempt to determine the cause and origin of the outbreak. The CDC team is supposed to continue the investigation through the boarding of new passengers for the ship’s next voyage slated to begin tomorrow.

Cruise Ship Employees Are Entitled To Compensation For Workplace Injuries

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

Our Florida cruise ship accident attorneys use this blog to discuss the rights of cruise ship passengers in the event they are injured by the acts or omissions of the cruise ship industry and its employees.

But what happens when one of those employees becomes injured due to the negligence of a cruise company? Working as a crew member aboard a cruise ship can be a particularly risk job, as cruise crew are consistently exposed to dangerous situations and conditions that can cause serious injury, illness, or death.

In 1920, Congress adopted Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act, referred to as the “Jones Act”, as a means of protecting the rights of crew members and maritime workers that fall under the legal definition of “seamen.” The Jones Act allows a seaman, that is injured as the result of the negligence of an employer or co-worker in the course of his or employment on a vessel, to recover for those injuries.

Another Cruise Ship Passenger Victim of Alleged Medical Negligence

January 22, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Last month, this blog discussed a particularly troubling decision out of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals, wherein the Court found that a cruise ship doctor was not subject to its jurisdiction because the Plaintiff failed to show that the doctor had the “substantial, continuous, and systematic business contacts” necessary for the Court to exercise jurisdiction over him.

Last week, our Florida cruise ship accident attorneys read through another incident involving the death of a 72-year-old passenger aboard Carnival’s Sun Princess ship raised allegations of potential medical negligence, and led the Attorney General of Queensland, Australia, to order an investigation into the death.

Cruise passenger Betty Virgo was sailing from Brisbane to New Zealand in November of 2012 when she became ill at dinner on the fifth day of the voyage. Betty Virgo’s daughter, Gayle, who was sailing with her, claimed that the ship’s medical staff refused to allow Betty to stay in the medical bay for observation overnight. Gayle remained with Betty the next day as her condition worsened. When Betty’s breathing became labored, she was taken to the ship’s medical center and died that evening. The ship physician diagnosed “angina” as Betty’s cause of death.

Government Accountability Office Report Calls Into Question Cruise Industry’s Compliance With Cruise Vessel Security And Safety Act

January 21, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

In July of 2010, Congress passed the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (“CVSSA), legislation designed to improve the security and safety of passengers aboard cruise ships carrying more than 250 passengers on a voyage embarking or disembarking from any U.S. ports. Adoption of the CVSSA was spurred by findings by Congress that “passengers on cruise vessels have an inadequate appreciation of their potential vulnerability to crime while on ocean voyages, and…lack the information they need to understand their legal rights or to know whom to contact for help in the immediate aftermath of the crime.” Our Florida cruise ship accident attorneys have been viewing the details of this closely.

In order to achieve its goals, the CVSSA required cruise lines to adopt a number of safety measures, including security peepholes on passenger cabin doors, security cameras, higher guardrails, and the distribution of safety information to passengers.

Despite these requirements, it would appear that, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), the cruise industry is largely ignoring four important requirements of the CVSSA:

CDC Declares Gastrointestinal Outbreak Aboard Norwegian Cruise Line Ship

January 9, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) issued a cruise ship illness outbreak alert for the Norwegian Gem, an over 3,600-passenger capacity ship in the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet. According to the alert, during a November 13-25, 2013, voyage, 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. The cause of the outbreak is unknown, but our Florida maritime accident attorneys are waiting with anticipation for a discovery.

The report states that Norwegian Cruise Line responded to the outbreak by increasing the ship’s cleaning and disinfecting procedures and collecting specimens from ill passengers and crew for testing at the CDC’s National Calicivirus Laboratory. According to the CDC, Vessel Sanitation Program officers are monitoring the outbreak, which will continue into the ship’s subsequent voyage.

The CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (“VSP”) is designed to assist the cruise ship industry in preventing and controlling introduction, transmission, and spread of gastrointestinal illnesses, i.e. food poisoning, on cruise ships. Despite the CDC’s best efforts, however, health violations are common occurrences on many cruise ships. Improper storage, handling, and preparation of food onboard cruise ships is dangerous and can easily result in the spread of gastrointestinal illness. Gastrointestinal illnesses can cause vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, dehydration, and, in very serious cases, death.