Americans love to cruise, whether it is to the Caribbean, to the Alaskan Coast or on transatlantic adventures. What they don’t like is developing mysterious illnesses with flu-like symptoms, slipping and falling on deck, missing passengers, and fires onboard. Additionally, employees of the cruise lines have been filing cruise lawsuits suing more recently over inadequate medical care, long term injuries and other personal injury claims. Since roughly 11.2 million people took cruises last year and cruising is the fastest-growing segment of the worldwide travel industry, it stands to reason that as the numbers of people cruising increases, so will the cruise ship lawsuits for problems on board.
Most recently in the news has been the numbers of passengers who have gone missing while onboard a cruise ship in recent years. George Smith, a man on his honeymoon from Connecticut simply vanished in the summer of 2005 off a cruise ship and his family is raising concerns about the safety of cruise ships and what they are doing to protect their passengers from harm.
We also frequently hear on the news about the “cruise ship virus” that tends to strike down a number of people on a given cruise ship with an onerous gastrointestinal virus. In fact, this is often just a Norovirus. It typically occurs on cruises because sick passengers and crewmembers are all treated and cared for by the same physician. Noroviruses are very contagious and are easily spread through the fecal-oral route, either by consumption of improperly washed food or untreated water or by direct person-to-person contact with someone who is not a diligent hand washer. Still, if you and your shipmates are all struck down with vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea and a low-grade fever, you might have reason to be concerned. If more than 3% of the cruise ship becomes ill, the physician must report this to the CDC.
Cruise ship fires have also been in the news. In March of 2006, the Carnival Star Princess, sailing from Grand Cayman to Montego Bay Jamaica, had a fire on board. The Star Princess is a massive ship, and was carrying 2,690 passengers and 1,123 crewmembers. This cruise ship fire killed one person, who suffered a heart attack, significantly injured two others who suffered from smoke inhalation and left nine others hospitalized. The fire was significant enough to damage 150 cabins. In the case of the Carnival Star cruise ship fire, it looks like a lit cigarette was left unattended or improperly extinguished and started the fire that left a giant charred area on the ships exterior and left passengers frightened for more than 12 hours.
Cruising is a wonderful method of travel, but only if you feel safe and secure. Once that feeling is corrupted, however, there is nothing more frightening than feeling like you are without escape in the middle of the ocean.
If you or someone you know and love has been hurt or made seriously ill by a cruise or cruise line, you should contact a reputable and experienced cruise attorney. They are out there and they specialize and working with the cruise ship lawsuits and with the courts on taking care of vacationers and cruise line employees and getting them the compensation and redress they deserve through cruise lawsuits.