Florida cruise ship attorneys

Gastrointestinal Disease Strikes Royal Caribbean Cruise Out Of Baltimore

April 14, 2014 | by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

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.

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:

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.”

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.

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.