Cruise Ship Disasters
Boy, 4, airlifted off Disney cruise after nearly drowning in swimming pool
A four-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital after nearly drowning on a Disney cruise on Saturday.
This is the second drowning incident in a month for the company who do not have permanent lifeguards at their pools. Warnings are posted by the side of the water that lifeguards are not on duty.
The child, whose condition or name have not been released due to privacy reasons, was found unresponsive in a swimming pool on the cruise ship Fantasy at around 3.30 pm.
The ship was briefly docked at Port Canaveral at the time of the near drowning.
After the boy was discovered Disney staff gave him medical attention. The boy was then airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando.
Disney told Fox Orlando that their ‘thoughts are with the family and they’re working to assist them at this time.’ The ship left port and continued on its Caribbean cruise 45 minutes after the near drowning.
This is the second drowning on Disney property this month. Missouri boy Anthony Johnson, 13, died after he was found at the bottom of a pool at a Disney hotel in Orlando on March 10.
The teen’s father and another guest at the hotel performed CPR after he was pulled out of the water.
Officials said the boy was staying at the Pop Century Resort, near the Epcot theme park, with his family.
Witnesses said the teenager was playing in the water on Sunday evening with family members. A cousin spotted him underwater around 9.10pm and alerted others in the group who pulled him out to the side of the pool.
Orange County Sheriff’s officials said the victim had a pulse and was breathing when he was taken to Celebration Hospital. He was then transferred to Florida Hospital South but later died
CRUISE SHIP ACCIDENTS AND INJURIES
When a passenger on a cruise ship is injured, the law that applies to an injury claim will most likely be the General Maritime Law of the United States. At least if the ship is operated by one of the major cruise lines based in the U.S. such as Princess Cruise Lines, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Lines and most all of the others you will be familiar with.
Under U.S. Maritime Law, a cruise line can be held liable for damages if it negligently causes injury to a passenger, no matter where in the world the injury occurs. Negligence can involve something dramatic, such as the listing event on the Crown Princess several years ago when a navigational error nearly caused the ship to capsize, injuring hundreds of passengers. Negligence will certainly be a litigated topic for survivors and family members of passengers aboard the Costa Concordia, the Carnival-owned cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy in January 2012.
But usually the negligence is of a more ordinary sort. For example a deck that becomes unusually slippery when wet or a poorly marked tripping or falling hazard. And unfortunately, this sort of negligence is all to common on Cruise Ships.
U.S. Maritime Law protects you on these ships, no matter where in the world the injury occurs. And foreign passengers enjoy the same rights as a U.S. citizens. But there are important limit on your rights as well that you need to be aware of.
Time Limitation
One of the most important of these limitations is that Cruise Lines are allowed to shorten the time you have to make a claim, and limit the place where you can file suit. Almost all the cruise lines require an injured passenger to give them written notice of the claim within 6 months and to file suit within one year of the date of the injury.
Venue Limitation
The second, the passage ticket will limit the place where you can file suit. Most of the major cruise lines specify either Los Angeles or Miami but some lines specify other cities.
The time and place limits on filing suit must be stated in plain language in your passage ticket so you must check your passage ticket to see what limitations apply to you. If you still have questions, and experienced maritime personal injury attorney will know what limitations apply for any of the major cruise lines.
Contact a Cruise Ship Accidents and Injuries Attorney
You have rights under maritime law that can protect you, but you also have obligations you must comply with. Our mission is to help you understand both.
Our attorney’s are available for a no cost, no obligation consultation 24/7. To arrange a consultation, please call us today toll-free at 1-877-465-8711.
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Captain of wrecked Italian cruise ship facing manslaughter charges
Divers found the bodies of two elderly men inside a capsized cruiseliner on Sunday, raising to five the death toll after the luxury vessel foundered and dramatically keeled over off Italy’s coast.
Teams were painstakingly checking the interior spaces of the partly submerged Italian liner Costa Concordia for 15 people still unaccounted for after the huge ship, with 4,229 passengers and crew on board, was holed by a rock on Friday night.
The captain of the 114,500-tonne ship, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, Italian police said. Some 64 people were injured in the accident.
Investigators were working through evidence from the equivalent of the “black boxes” carried on aeroplanes, to try to establish the precise sequence of events behind the accident, which occurred in calm seas and shallow waters.
Searching the vast ship for survivors was like combing through a small town – but one tilted on its side, largely in darkness, partly underwater and full of floating debris.
In the early afternoon, scuba divers looking for survivors found the bodies of two men at an evacuation assembly point in the submerged part of the ship, coastguard officials said.
The bodies of two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were found on Saturday.
The discovery of the bodies on Sunday dampened earlier euphoria when a helicopter lifted off injured chief purser Manrico Gianpetroni, hours after rescuers made voice contact with him deep inside the stricken, multi-storey vessel. Gianpetroni, who had a broken leg, was winched up from the ship on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
“I never lost hope of being saved. It was a 36-hour nightmare,” he told reporters.
Passengers compared the disaster to the sinking of the Titanic, and described people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic when the ship hit a rock and ran aground as they sat down for dinner on Friday night.
The vast hulk of the 290-metre-long ship loomed over the little port of Giglio, a picturesque island in a maritime nature reserve off the Tuscan coast. There was large gash in its side and divers were able to swim into the wreck through the hole.
The specialist diving teams faced a complex task as they worked their way through the warren of cabins on the ship – a floating resort that boasted a huge spa, seven restaurants, bars, cinemas and discotheques.
“Getting inside the ship is really difficult and dangerous,” said Majko Aldone, a one of the specialist team of divers who have been entering cabins through open portholes or by smashing through the glass.
“There are various obstacles, sheets, mattresses, nets which have broken free and are spread out all over the areas we’re searching,” he said.
Paolo Tronca, a local fire department official, said the search would go on “for 24 hours a day as long as we have to” and that rescue workers were using sniffer dogs in the section of the ship above water.
As the search continued, there were demands for explanations of why the vessel had come so close to the shore and bitter complaints about how long it took to evacuate the terrified passengers.
State prosecutor Francesco Verusio said investigations might go beyond the captain.
“We are investigating the possible responsibility of other people for such a dangerous manoeuvre,” he told SkyTG24 television. “Command systems did not function as they should.”
He said the ship had come within 150 metres (yards) of the coast, which he called “incredibly close.”
Agnese Stella, a 72-year-old housewife who has lived on Giglio for 50 years told Reuters: “It came much too close (to shore), it never comes this close normally.”
Magistrates said Schettino abandoned the vessel not long after midnight, well before all the passengers were taken off.
The vessel’s operator, Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp & Plc CCL.L, the world’s largest cruise company, said the Costa Concordia had been sailing on its regular course when it struck a submerged rock.
In a television interview, Schettino said the rock was not marked on any maritime charts of the area.
After an massive rescue operation throughout the weekend, involving helicopters, ships and lifeboats, many passengers had already left the area and returned home and attention began to turn to the cleanup.
Local officials expressed concern the ship’s fuel, at full load as it had just begun the cruise, could spill into pristine waters off Giglio. So far there was no sign of pollution. Dutch maritime services company SMIT said it had been hired to pump fuel off the ship once the rescue was over.
The coast guard says the removal of the 2,380 tonnes of fuel cannot begin until the rescue is complete because the operation could cause the vessel to move or sink further into the water.
Admiralty Maritime Law and Wrongful Death Liability
Although admiralty law covers ship accidents, it does not subsume other laws.
There are usually many other local, federal state and international laws relating specifically to injuries at sea from negligence.
Most sea vessels are actually registered in foreign countries. Many of these vessels unfurl foreign flags. This means the country the ship is registered
in may have laws covering the vessel as well. Many of these laws might be better for the injured passenger than U.S. laws. This is why you need an
experienced cruise ship accident attorney. As an example, a ship that has its port of departure in Los Angeles, California may be covered under the laws
of the state of California, and the laws of the United States. It may also be covered under the laws of the country of the foreign flag the ship flys, as well as international treaties between the U.S. and the other. The Law Offices of Gary A. Kessler have the knowledge to litigate claims from foreign ports of call, and domestic ports of call.
You may need to bring claims against the U.S. under the Suits in Admiralty Act, or Public Vessels Act. The experienced cruise ship negligence attorneys at the Law Offices of Gary A. Kessler will sue whatever country is responsible for your oceanic injuries.
The Offices of Gary A. Kessler are expert in admiralty and maritime law, and can provide you with the legal representation you need to recover damages
for the negligence of an ocean liner, or for boating injuries or other accidents
that occur in the ocean, lakes, or rivers.
The highly skilled boating accident attorney Gary A Kessler (and the Law Offices of Gary A Kessler) has the experience and track record, handling dozens upon dozens of successful lawsuits against the owners and operators of private boats, personal watercraft, cruise ships and commercial ferries. If you or a loved one suffered an injury or death due to a boating accident or while engaged in water sporting activities, consult experienced personal injury lawyer Gary A Kessler who has handled these types of claims as soon as possible. The laws that apply to injuries that occur on or around the water are extremely complex and must be carefully analyzed to correctly determine the liability issues and the value of your boating fatality case.
Demand accountability from those responsible for the boating accidents. Many times the insurance companies will play “hardball” if you try to settle the case yourself or you have employed a lawyer who does not have the litigation experience to handle such a complex case. We at the Law Offices of Gary A Kessler have twenty years of litigation experience and know how to handle the insurance companies to your advantage. We are prepared to front all costs required for the neccessary investigation and expert witnesses needed to prepare your case for trial.
The laws regarding boating accident (drowning) cases are complex and include many facets of the law. It is vital to surviving family members to seek the advice of an experienced boating fatality lawyer such as Gary A Kessler at the Law Offices of Gary A Kessler to protect your rights and those of your loved ones.
The California wrongful death attorney Gary A Kessler and the Law Offices of Gary A Kessler are compassionate and fully understand that you are attempting to cope with extreme grief and sorrow associated with the loss of a loved one in a tragic boating fatality (drowning) accident. The Law Offices of Gary A Kessler carefully selects its wrongful death/drowning/boating fatality cases so that we may give you (the client) the substantial personal attention neccessary to obtain a successful result for your boating fatality/drowning accident case.
The Law Offices of Gary A Kessler is prepared to front all costs required for a thorough investigation and top expert witnesses to prepare for the trial of your case. As in all wrongful death and serious personal injury cases, we advance all legal costs to prepare and present our client’s claim, and receive for our services only a percentage of what we recover for our atorney fees on their behalf. Upon settlement our costs shall be reimbursed to us from the gross recovery. If there is no recovery, no attorneys fees or costs are owed to our firm.
