Cruise Ship Accident Lawyer Blog

MIAMI, FL—July 27, 2011 – Authorities from the U.S. Coast Guard on July 23, 2011 called off the search for a California man who was reported missing from a cruise ship less than one day before. According to information provided by 10News, Fallbrook resident Blake Kepley, 20, was traveling in Alaska aboard the Holland America cruise vessel Oosterdam when he went missing on June 22, 2011.

Reports indicated Kepley was last seen aboard the cruise ship Oosterdam, a 7-day Alaskan cruise voyage, at some point between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on June 22. Kepley’s family members reported him missing at approximately 2:30 p.m., when he failed to meet up with them before disembarking from the ship at a port in Ketchikan. Holland America then reported the missing persons case to Coast Guard officials. Cruise line representatives appeared to believe Kepley may have fallen overboard.

Although the Coast Guard search lasted less than 24 hours, ending at about 3:45 p.m. on June 23, USCG personnel in helicopters and other boats covered a span of nearly 400 miles in an attempt to find the missing cruise ship passenger. The cruise vacation came to an end on June 24.

According to an unidentified passenger who sent 10News an e-mail regarding the missing persons case, “Two passengers, twin sisters, told me they were walking on deck Thursday at 8:15 and saw Blake by the railing. He was kneeling and had his hands in a prayer position, crying. A few minutes later they observed him being carried or dragged off the deck by a man and another young man. They believed that the man was his dad and a brother or cousin.”

Petty Officer 1st Class Lindsey Kirby, Sector Juneau Operations unit controller maintained, “While we have suspended active searching, we encourage anyone who sees anything while transiting though the area to call the Coast Guard… Suspending a case is one of the hardest decisions that we as search and rescuers have to make.”

Recreational boating accident statistics provided by the Coast Guard indicated there were 431 falls overboard, resulting in a total of 188 deaths and 257 injuries, in 2008.

Also, drowning was the leading cause of death related to such boating accidents. During the year 2008, recreational boating accidents resulted in at least 510 drowning deaths.

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Today’s cruise ships are full of surprises. From the almost endless variety of entertainment and leisure activities, to the food and company at dinner, passengers never know what a trip may bring. But one surprise isn’t welcome: cruise ship practices regarding emergency aid for sick or injured passengers. This issue is at the heart of an upcoming trial pitting Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. against a young passenger who became severely disabled after what her family says was a needless delay in getting medical attention. That case — Amaran v Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. (Case No. 04-26948 CA 27) — will begin November 7 in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. But its impact, says cruise ship injury lawyer Philip M. Gerson of the law firm Gerson & Schwartz, will be felt wider, and for a long time to come.

“In the six years we have spent in pre-litigation, the defendants — Royal Caribbean and the firm that manages its fitness centers and spas, Steiner Transocean — have said they have no duty to provide emergency care at sea,” says Gerson, a longtime advocate for cruise ship injury victims. “They’ve said it during hearing after hearing, on transcript after transcript, that there is no duty to provide emergency medical care. We don’t think that’s correct. And with this case, we plan to both publicize and end this dangerous practice. We’re going to help push the cruise ship industry into the 21st century.”
Preetha Amaran, the plaintiff in the upcoming trial, was a 26-year-old medical resident — bright future and life ahead of her — when she collapsed aboard a treadmill on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship on March 8, 2004. In a sworn deposition, her mother, who witnessed the event, testified that the fitness center’s director failed to use his training in CRP to render aid, and that, indeed, he failed even to assess the seriousness of the situation. Preetha and her family contend that medical attention was needlessly delayed, resulting in severe brain injury and permanent incapacitation.

“No one disputes that the fitness director did nothing — no CPR, no assessment, no running for the ship’s doctor,” says Gerson. “That is something lawyers for Royal Caribbean and Steiner Transocean have said on the transcripts, too. But that’s okay, the defendants contend, because the case law says cruise ships are under no obligation even to carry doctors. What we plan to show at trial is that they’re improperly extending a very old, out-of-date rule.”

Historically, says Gerson, ships didn’t have to carry doctors because the vessels were alone at sea, with only limited, primitive communications links, so there was no way to have control over what the doctor did. “But times are very different now,” the injury lawyer adds, “with ships carrying advanced technology, like satellites and Internet connections and even videoconferencing.” Just as significantly, Gerson adds, there are more recent laws in place — international maritime regulations that say that ships do need to have an emergency plan and crew members do need to train in CPR. “To say there is no duty to do anything just flies in the face of both maritime law and logic,” the veteran attorney says.

Gerson’s hope is that the Amaran case will clarify what the duty of a cruise ship crew member is. But he also hopes that the trial will help get the word out about industry practices that, he says, are both antiquated and dangerous. Public pressure, the injury lawyer notes, can be an effective way to spur industry-wide changes.

And those changes, says Gerson, are urgently needed: “Nowhere does the cruise industry publicize the fact that if you’re injured, or you become sick, or you have a heart attack on their treadmill, they have no duty at all to come to your assistance. People walk onto a ship expecting a lot of things — entertainment, recreation, a good time. But they never expect that when they need help most, they’re not going to get it.” 

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