Certain victims of the Costa Concordia sinking have filed a class-action lawsuit in Florida.  Although Costa Cruise Line headquarters are in Italy, owner Carnival Corp. is registered in Florida, and plaintiffs in the civil suit are hoping the Florida courts find jurisdiction is proper and accept their class action claims. They may have an uphill battle, as the cruise line tickets specify that litigation must take place in Italy.

Not all victims wish to be part of this potential class action. Miami maritime attorney John H. (Jack) Hickey believes Italy to be a more beneficial venue to file suit even if Florida courts agree to take on the case. With a proven track record for holding cruise lines accountable to victims for the last 32 years, Hickey said, “Class actions are not always appropriate for personal injury suits…Italy actually will provide more compensation to the families of the deceased passengers than a court in the United States would because of the draconian Death on the High Seas Act.”

Enacted in 1920, the federal Death on the High Seas Act prevents families from collecting non-economic damages when their loved one died on the “high seas,” including cruise ship accidents in the territorial waters of foreign countries. Non-economic damages include but are not limited to pain and suffering, psychological trauma, loss of enjoyment in life activities, loss of companionship and consortium, and more. Hickey noted that Italian law allows for significant recovery for death and therefore, remedies in Italy are potentially greater for victims and their families than in the United States.

Hickey Law Firm, P.A. – Miami maritime attorneys

After the disaster aboard the Concordia last month, the cruise industry is finally getting some much needed scruntity. We have been saying for years that the industry has a top-notch public relations program, which serves to help the industry avoid much of the criticism which is rightly deserved in many situations. A New York Times article yesterday reviews some of the dangers. Here are som selected quotes:

When discussing the prevelance of virus outbreaks on cruise ships, the article points out that “Last year, there were 14 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses on 10 ships, affecting hundreds of passengers.” These outbreaks included outbreaks of Norovirus, which is a highly contagious, air-borne, disease affecting the stomach.

Crime is also a big problem on cruise ships. Amazingly, accorrding to the article:

“Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed 16 investigations involving crime on cruise ships, 13 of which were sexual assaults, according to data posted online by the Coast Guard. But that doesn’t represent the total number of incidents reported to the F.B.I., including any still-open or pending prosecutions.”

With approximatly 10 million cruisers last year, this number is surely under-reported.

Other dangers discussed in the article are fire, and falling overboard. But it is clear that these represent just some of the dangers which cruise passengers face, which also include cruise ship sinking, and being stranded in a foreign land.

Primary Source: http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/travel/reassessing-cruise-safety.html

A South Carolina man has died aboard the Carnival Cruise Ship “Fantasy” after apparently trying to jump from one floor of the cruise ship to another. According to Police in the Bahamas, the man fell to his death.

The man has been identified by Royal Bahamas Police as 26-year-old Walter Bouknight. The incident occurred last Friday.

Bouknight was declared dead at the scene.

Primary Source: http://www.wltx.com/news/article/171208/2/SC-Man-Who-Died-on-Cruise-Ship-Identified-

Expect to see the capsized ship Concordia sitting in the waters off the coast of Italy for many months to come.  Experts have suggested it may take up to 10 months to remove the ship from the coast, due to delicate preparations that must be made in order to do as little damaget to the surroounding ecosystem as possible.

First, workers must remove fuel from the ship, a process which is expercted to take 3 weeks to a month.  After the fuel removal, the ship itself must be removed, a process which will take several months to complete.

According to USA Today:

“Our first goal was to find people alive,” Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the operation, told a daily briefing. “Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster.”

On Saturday, the body of a female crew member was found, bringing the death toll to 17.  15 people remain missing.

Primary Source: http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-01-29/Rough-seas-still-delay-work-on-grounded-Italian-liner/52867316/1

Concordia continues to be a pain for all involved. Divers are continuing to search the vessel for bodies, with 17 bodies having been discovered, and 15 still missing. The search effort was halted as the ship began to slip recently, but has since been resumed.

Shame on the parliaments of all of the countries and of the EC which have adopted the Athens Convention.  The Convention imposes across the board damage caps for claims brought by passengers against cruise lines.  What does the passenger get in return?  Nothing.  That is why the Athens Convention really should be called the Cruise Line Relief Act.

Damage caps serve only to ensure that the claims will be settled if at all for amounts well under the cap.  Why would the cruise line subject to the cap offer in settlement anything even close to the cap if the worse they can do at a trial is to be liable for the damages of the cap?  They would rather settle for peanuts or go to the trial or final hearing because there is no risk of any significant loss and any loss above the cap.

That means that:  (1) the cruise line does not have to take full responsibility for their actions and provide compensation for the full extent of the losses and harms to the passenger;  (2) significant claims either for economic losses (medical expenses and/or lost wages in the past and in the future) and for non economic losses (pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of ability to enjoy life, scarring, disfigurement, and disability) go uncompensated.

What is the result?  The result is that the passenger—not the cruise line– has to absorb the losses.  That also means that you and I pay for it.  If the injured passenger receives insufficient compensation for an injury where for example they are unable to work and need public assistance or need medical care whether the public assistance is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability or even food stamps, or if they go to the emergency room of your local public hospital instead of to a doctor, you and I as taxpayers are paying for the losses, not the cruise lines.  That does not make sense.

The result also is that the cruise line is not made to take full responsibility for causing—if it did—the non economic losses include  pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of ability to enjoy life, scarring, disfigurement, and disability.  In many injuries these can be permanent.  If you do not have chronic pain, ask someone who does.  Ask them how chronic pain affects their every waking minute, their sleep, their activities of daily living, relationships, ability to enjoy being in this world, daily happiness, and ability to be themselves.  They will tell you all about it.

The Athens Convention is the Cruise Line Relief Act.  Shame on all of the parliaments and the EC which have shown more loyalty to the lobbyists and executives of the cruise lines than to their own people.  How many expensive dinners, free cruises, promises, or worse bought this loyalty?  We need to demand that our representatives serve our needs, not the needs of some executives or lobbyists.  Demand that your parliament or government never adopt– or repeal if it is in effect– the Athens Convention.

Is it true that you, the cruise line, under the maritime law, have an obligation to provide medical care to the injured crew members until they reach a plateau in their healing known as maximum medical improvement?

Is it true that there have been instances when the treating doctor in the crew member’s home country–usually in a third world country– recommends surgery or other important medical care, and the cruise lines have used their doctors in Miami to provide a report without even seeing the patient that says that the crew member does not need the surgery?

Is it true that there have been instances when the treating doctor in the crew member’s home country–usually a third world country– recommends surgery or other important medical care, and the cruise line’s representative calls and talks to the doctor–who is getting paid by the cruise line, and within days and without seeing the patient again the doctor changes his or her opinion and prepares a different report?

Is it true that the cruise lines have delayed or denied surgery or other medical care to its crew members?

Is it true that the cruise lines have required that the crew members communicate with the “ship’s agent” in the home country of the crew member and that later the cruise line denies that it has received any requests for medical care (and that the “agent” is not a cruise line employee after all and does not communicate any such requests to the cruise line because they get paid for among other things bringing crew members to the cruise line and taking care of “problems” and an injured crew member is a problem).

We have been saying for years that the cruise industry maintains one of the best public relations operations of any industry in the world.  Accidents are often under reported, if they are reported at all.  Passengers go missing, are raped and sexually assaulted by cruise line employees, and are injured in large numbers.  But, these incidents rarely make the headlines.

However, after the recent Concordia cruise ship accident, there may be ano opportunity for much needed oversight to be imposed on the industry.  Today a piece by Reuters news agency points out some of the issues with regulating the industry until now.

First the story quotes a statement by the European Council saying “During the past two decades, cruise lines have maintained the best safety record in the travel industry.”

However, as the story goes on to point out, this is a very difficult assertion to verify, given the lack of adequate reporting by the cruise ship industry to date.

“Research by Reuters has revealed, however, that patchy safety data and poor accident reporting standards make it difficult to verify how safe the industry really is and impossible for members of the public to easily compare the relative safety standards of different operators,” the article says

The article goes on to list different ways the cruise industry is under-regulated, including lack of minimum stafffing levels, and regulations which are “full of holes”

Particularly shocking is that, according to the article “The IMO database lists 38 incidents involving passenger ships since 2005 in which more than 60 people died.”

The hope is that finally the international governing community will finally wake up and make the necessary changes to ensure ships are operating in a safe manner.

Primary Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/25/us-italy-ship-regulation-idUSTRE80N1OD20120125

As the wrecked cruise ship Concorida sits in one of Europe´s most pristne marine habitats, preparations began today to remove a half million gallons of fuel from the ship.  The race is on to remove the fuel before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan Sea. 

Today workers were seen attaching a barge to the ship, marking the first steps of the process.  The actual removal of the the fuel is not set to being until Saturday. 

The salvage team, workig for the Dutch firm Smit, made the prliminary inspections today on the wrecked ship, preparing to clean up the mega-cruiser.  So far the death toll from the accident stands at 16, with still more than a dozen missing. 

See below for an animation of the propsed fuel extraction

Primary Source: http://www.startribune.com/world/137950498.html

Reports indicate that two additional bodies have been found in the wrecked cruise ship Concordia, bringing the total number of confirmed dead to 15. The bodies, which were reportedly recovered today, were of two women. There are reportedly 17 people still missing as a result of the accident.

Meanwhile, according to ABCNews.com, two Americans remain unaccounted for, the only two Americans still missing. Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minn., have not been seen since the disaster. They reportedly used retirement savings to take the cruise off the Italian coast.

Recent challenges to searching inside the half sunken ship included weather patterns, which caused the ship to shift. According to Franco Gabrielli, head of operations of the Civil Protection Authority, the ship has stopped shifting.

“Searching underwater inside the ship is getting increasingly more difficult, but can continue,” said Gabrielli. “The ship is now stable and should not slip further.” He said divers are also trying to recoup personal belongings from the ship.

Primary Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/cruise-ship-wreck-womens-bodies-found-heil-children/story?id=15421660