Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

Some passengers on the Carnival cruise ship, Fascination, told Channel 4 in Jacksonville that they are considering legal action because the ship took off from the Jacksonville port knowing there was bad weather ahead.

A woman from Illinois says the cruise line put her and her friends in danger when the ship took off Thursday, October 6 for a four-day trip to the Bahamas, encountering severe weather along the way. She says waves crashed into the ship as high as the windows and about 2,000 passengers had to skip a port of call, faced delays in catching flights back, fainted, and became ill all over the rocking ship. The tide was too high to allow the ship to pass under the Dames Point Bridge and they had to dock at the cargo terminal, causing further delays. Other passengers say doors were being blown in off their hinges from the wind, dinner plates were falling on the floor, and shop shelves were collapsing. The captain decided to continue despite this weather.

The woman is demanding a refund, saying the captain should have been able to predict the dangerous weather. However, the fine print in the Carnival cruise tickets says refunds are not issued. Many consumers may not realize when they sign the ticket they are agreeing to the fine print on the back. Carnival can alter the ship’s course, decide whether or not to skip ports, and alter the activities on the ship due to bad weather. Trip insurance may be the only remedy for those who lose money due to a Jacksonville cruise accident.

Most passengers who had commented on the website said they would like their money back and will never travel on Carnival again.

Source: http://www.news4jax.com/news/29464714/detail.html

On July 27, Tuesday, President Obama signed into law a new federal law intended to improve the safety of cruise ship passengers on the high seas, reported the Baltimore Sun. The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act requires better communication between the cruise lines, which are all registered to foreign owners, and U.S. federal agencies. This is to better keep track of passengers who fall overboard, go missing, are raped, assaulted, or injured.

The new law requires that cruise liners, when taking U.S. citizens on excursions, must have at least one member of the crew on board who is trained by the U.S. Coast Guard to handle cruise ship crimes.

Railings on the deck will be raised to at least 42 inches and there need to be peepholes and on-deck surveillance. Some critics say the law doesn’t go far enough and 54 inch rails would do more to prevent passengers going overboard.

Restrictions will be tightened over which cruise ship employees have access to personal passenger cabins.

Florida cruise ship crime victim attorneys want the public to know that any cruise ship that does not comply could see their owners facing both civil and criminal penalties and fines. The jurisdiction here is tricky. Because they are foreign-flagged vessels, the Federal Maritime Commission has limited oversight concerning crimes on the high seas. Prior to this law, the government did not require the cruise lines to report crimes at sea including missing passengers and rape. Now they must be reported promptly to the FBI.

It was the rape of a California woman on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in 2006 that prompted her representative, Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), to sponsor the legislation. Now there must be an improved crime-scene response and ships will be required to carry rape kits, have a trained forensic sexual assault specialist on board, as well as anti-retroviral medications for the woman.

The next time a cruise passenger plans on a vacation at sea the public will be able to view an online criminal database, maintained by the U.S Department of Homeland Security, to determine which ships have the highest crime rate. Each ship must also keep a log of crimes reported.

The provisions will be phased in – one year after the law takes effect with the certification of medical personnel to be phased in over two years.

Laurie Dishman, the Sacramento woman raped at sea by a cruise ship janitor says “If this law was in place when I was brutally raped, there would have been evidence for a prosecution and the assailant who raped me would not be free.”

A cruise passenger’s experience should be relaxing, not as if they are surviving a nightmare. The Holland America’s Maasdam disembarked in Fort Lauderdale in March after at least 14 percent of its passengers were hit with unpleasant flu symptoms, according to a Sun Sentinel article. 168 of the 1,211 passengers and 19 crew members reported vomiting and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Cruise lines must report illness when more than one percent of passengers are ill. Holland America says it has cleaned the ship and when it returned to dock, two officials from the CDC were there to greet the ship.

Liability Issues
Apparently it all started with one ill passenger who boarded without reporting their illness. During the two-week trip the majority of illnesses began early in the two-week voyage. If someone is in poor health it is recommended they not board a cruise ship, but if their condition is chronic, they are supposed to tell medical personnel onboard in advance and forward their medical records to the cruise line.

So far this year there have been seven illness outbreaks on cruise ships investigated by the CDC. Three of the illnesses were identified as Norovirus, which is a commonly spread virus that causes two to three days of flu-like illness. Several other cruise ships also had reports of gastrointestinal illness over the past month. How the cruise line handles the outbreak is very important to how passengers eventually react.

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