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Articles Posted in Cruise Ship Injury & Death

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Zip Line The honeymoon of Israeli newlyweds, Egael Tishman, 24, and Shif Fanken, 27, came to a tragic end when the couple collided during a zip line excursion.  The couple was celebrating their honeymoon aboard Royal Caribbean Cruises’ Allure of the Seas, which set sail from Fort Lauderdale on July 1st.  On Thursday, July 5th, while participating in a zip line excursion in Roatan, Honduras, the wife got stuck near the middle of the cable. Her husband came sliding down the zip line behind her, smashing into her.

The couple sustained severe injuries, including broken ribs.  They were taken to a local hospital, where the husband passed away. The wife was taken by air to a hospital in the United States Friday morning, where she underwent surgery and is reported to be in stable condition.

Honduran officials are investigating to determine the cause of the incident.  Zip line courses in the United States typically must comply with minimal safety standard.  Two well recognized standards include the Association for Challenge Course Technology (“ACCT”) and the American Society for Testing Materials International (“ASTM”).  Royal Caribbean utilizes a bid process by which they claim to vet shoreside excursion companies providing recreational activities advertised by the Cruise Line.  This bid process includes a trifecta of documents that reportedly must be completed every year.  These documents include: a Tour Operating & Basic Tour Information Profile, Universal Bid Template and Tour Operator Investment Profile.  These documents generally provide a description of the excursion and in the case of a zip line, sometimes the minimal safety standards to which the course was designed and built.

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Harmony-of-the-seas-golf-trip-fall-injury-202x300Our cruise passenger trip and fall injury attorneys have been retained by a woman who suffered a significant hand injury while aboard the Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas cruise ship.  Our client was playing miniature golf when she tripped and fell over a raise on the course path which was obscured by poor lighting.  We are asking if any knows of other trip and falls on Royal Caribbean cruise ship’s miniature golf courses to better assist our client.  If you tripped, or witnessed a trip and fall, aboard the Harmony of the Seas or any Royal Caribbean ship’s mini golf course, please contact our law firm.

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lifeguard-20343192-300x200Earlier this year, Royal Caribbean announced its implementation of a new water safety program fleet wide starting with Oasis of the Seas.  The program includes stationing of lifeguards trained by StarGuard Elite at every pool including Solarium, the adult-only area.  RCL will also offer a 15-minute water safety presentation during the embarkation-day open house session for its youth program, Adventure Ocean.

Additionally, the new program will include the introduction of water safety instruction signs throughout the ships, which include signage around pool areas and cabins encouraging parents to use the life jackets made available to children ages 4-12 since late 2015.

Amid mounting pressure, Norwegian Cruise Line announced last week its decision to hire lifeguards to its four largest ships—Norwegian Escape, Norwegian Getaway, Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Epic by summer, 2017.  Norwegian expects to add lifeguards fleetwide by March, 2018.

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Cruise-Pool-Drowing.jpgThe Florida Board Certified Maritime Attorneys of Brais Law Firm have been retained by the family of a child who died from complications caused by a near drowning incident aboard Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas cruise ship. We are honored to have the opportunity to help this family in their time of need.

The incident occurred on June 30, 2016 as the Anthem of the Seas was leaving the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, New Jersey. The child, along with his brother and other children, entered into the children’s pool located in the H20 Zone on the 14th deck. A cruise ship attendant was posted within the H20 zone and appeared to be looking after the children. Though there was a cruise ship attendant in the area, the child was allowed to take off his life jacket, leave the children’s area and enter the much deeper main pool. The child, who could not swim, sank to the bottom and was underwater for an estimated eight to ten minutes. He was removed from the water and shipboard medical staff preformed resuscitation efforts. A pulse was established and the child was medevaced by the Coast Guard to Staten Island University Hospital in New York. Tragically, the boy died two days later.
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Degloving Injury Royal Caribbean Zip Line Accident.jpgThe cruise passenger injury lawyers of Brais Law Firm have filed lawsuit on behalf of a Texas woman against Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and a Honduran shore excursion operator for injuries sustained while participating in a zip-line excursion offered, advertised and marketed by the cruise line on its website.

The Complaint alleges that on the morning of September 3, 2015, our client paid for and participated in a Royal Caribbean advertised zip lining excursion offered by MC Tours at Roatan, Honduras. While zip lining from one platform to the other, our client followed the safety briefing by crossing her legs and lifting them as high as she could. Court papers assert that because there was too much slack in the line, when our client reached the other platform she violently struck her legs on to the front of the platform suffering severe injuries. The platform consisted of essentially a sheet of unpadded wood. Upon impact, the exposed wooden platform ripped the skin off her lower legs leaving bone, tendons and muscle exposed. Our client had open wounds on both lower legs, soft tissue loss measuring 18 x 32 cm on the left leg and 14 x 7 cm on the right leg. She underwent 11 operations consisting of incision, debridement and drainage procedures with wound vac exchanges and eventually skin grafts from skin taken from her left thigh.
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Keith Brais.jpgThomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers has selected our managing partner Keith Brais as a 2016 inductee into Super Lawyers. This distinct honor is enjoyed by less than 5 percent of all attorneys. What is particularly impressive is that Keith has achieved this impressive credential for eight consecutive years. The objective of Super Lawyers “is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel.” In selecting attorneys for Super Lawyer, a rigorous multiphase process is utilized. Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with third party research. Each candidate is evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Selections are made on an annual, state-by-state basis.

Besides being named a Super Lawyer, Keith has been a Florida Board Certified Admiralty and Maritime attorney since 1996, AV Preeminent rated by Martindale Hubbell for several years, a repeat inductee into the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Society (achieved by < 1% of all attorneys) and most recently selected by Florida Trend's magazine as a Legal Elite.

Keith's principal practice areas include catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful death claims involving cruise ship passengers, crewmembers, yacht guests & crew, resort vacationers and hotel guests with an emphasis in the fields of premises liability, negligent security and products liability. If you have been injured and would like to learn more about your legal rights, contact Keith or the other attorneys at Brais Law Firm.

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Louisiana Cruise Injury Lawyer.pngThe cruise passenger injury lawyers of BBRC have been retained to represent a Louisiana woman who fell due to an unreasonably slippery deck aboard the Carnival Elation cruise ship. The slip and fall occurred on the ship’s Lido deck. The accident, unfortunately, resulted in a rotator cuff tear requiring surgery.

Representing several cruise passengers throughout the years, we at BBRC have noticed several slip and falls on the Lido decks within Carnival’s fleet. We believe the reason for these accidents is simple. Carnival Cruise Lines just does not properly maintain the non-skid properties of these decks. When the decks are first laid down, they may be reasonably safe. But after cruise upon cruise that sees thousands of people walking on the decks daily, these safety features break down leaving the decks smooth and slippery. This, combined with the inherent wetness from people leaving the nearby pools, is a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, the paying passenger suffers from Carnival’s negligence.

If you suffered a slip and fall on the Elation or any other Carnival cruise ship Lido deck and would like to learn more about your rights, feel free to contact our multiple Maritime Board Certified Attorneys for a free consultation. Remember, Carnival’s cruise ticket requires you to provide special written notice of your claim within six months of your accident and requires you to bring a lawsuit in Miami Federal Court within one year. We at BBRC will be happy to walk you through your options and provide you with an honest and straightforward evaluation of your claim. You can contact us by clicking our on-line cruise injury intake form or calling us toll free at (800) 499-0551.

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South Carolina Cruise Injury.gifA 29-year-old passenger is in ta Charleston, South Carolina hospital after being airlifted off the Disney Magic cruise ship last Saturday. Reports state that in the early morning hours the cruise ship requested assistance from the Coast Guard when one of its passengers sustained injuries to his leg and hip. A Coast Guard MH-60 Dolphin helicopter crew randevued with the Disney Magic 45 miles off the South Carolina coast and airlifted the injured passenger to a hospital in Charleston where he received further treatment. No information has been releases as to how the passenger sustained his injuries. The man is said to be in stable condition.

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Miami Florida Court.jpgA Miami-Dade court this week has allowed Brais Law Firm’s client to bring a punitive damages claim against NCL and NCL America. In this case, our client suffered significant cervical and neurological injuries when she fell after being ordered to secure lounge chairs in near hurricane force winds.

Under maritime law, ship owners and seafarers’ employers are required to provide seamen in their service with medical benefits for injuries manifesting during the course of employment. During the time the seamen are recuperating from their injuries, they are also entitled to be provided a stipend for daily living expenses. This is commonly referred to as the duty to provide maintenance and cure. Ship owners and employers, however, sometimes fail in their duty to provide such benefits. Fortunately, the law provides penalties for the inappropriate failure to provide medical treatment to injured seamen.

Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal in NCL v. Zareno explains there is a three-tiered escalating scale of damages that may be assessed against ship owners and employers who fail to provide injured seamen with maintenance and cure benefits. The first category is known as the “reasonably denied” situation. Here, if the benefits were in fact owed, but reasonably denied, the ship owner and/or employer may only be held liable for the amount of maintenance and cure that was due and owing. The second category is the “unreasonably denied” situation. Here, if the benefits were unreasonably denied, meaning they refused to pay the benefits without a reasonable defense, the ship owner or employer becomes liable for not only the maintenance and cure due and owing, but also, compensatory damages. These compensatory damages are generally the pain and suffering the seaman endured because of the delay in providing benefits. The third category is the “callous indifference” situation. Here, if the denial of benefits is not only unreasonable, but the ship owner or employer has exhibited callousness and indifference to the seaman’s plight, they become liable for punitive damages and attorney fees.
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Texas Cruise Injury Lawyer.gifThe cruise injury law firm of Brais Law Firm has been retained to represent a Texas woman who was injured while on a Viking river cruise. The incident occurred when a rope was not properly secured causing the woman to trip and fall. This accident resulted in our client fracturing her arm near the elbow and fracturing her tooth.

Cruise lines are charged with the legal duty of exercising reasonable care for their passengers’ safety. This includes placing warning cones and even cordoning office areas of the ship that pose unreasonable tripping hazards. When a passenger is hurt when a cruise lines fails to exercise reasonable care, that injured passenger is often times entitled to compensation for pain, disfigurement, medical expenses and lost wages.

Viking Cruises is headquartered in California and operates several river cruises throughout Europe, Asia and Egypt. The company specializes in river cruising. Though only formed in 1997, Viking has over 60 cruise ships.

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