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Thinking about summer holidays while researching holiday accidents, and dreaming a little of far flung destinations, I came across a piece on cruise ships which raised the question – How do people fall off? And why?
Having never been on a cruise ship – and no, the Isle of Wight ferry cannot be called a cruise ship – I am not fully familiar with the types of safety devices used on such floating cities that would deter the odd wandering seafarer from heading off into the oblivion of the wild blue ocean. So, it was with interest that I read the conflicting comments of various cruise ship pundits.
The spokesperson for a large cruise liner company suggested that such cruise ship holiday accidents were "virtually impossible". Their particular vessels all had 44-inch railings, warning signs and uniformed security guards patrolling 24 hours a day.
To me this doesn't sound too hot on the safety front – three foot eight inch railings does not appear overly high and I'm a short person, but still the cruise liner guru said that simply ‘falling' overboard would be a challenge as it would always involve climbing, jumping or at the very least, the right kind of momentum to lift someone almost four feet into the air.
A solicitor, who has been involved in several cases where people say they have 'fallen' overboard, suggests that in nine out of ten cases the claimant was proved to have been in some way negligent.
He said, "They're very difficult cases. You need to prove that the cruise lines have violated some duty. And normally they don't. You can't keep people from doing dumb things."
Critics of cruise line safety suggest that holiday accidents are often fuelled by alcohol. Critics allege that cruise line policy is to ‘overserve' alcohol as it is a big profit making item on-board. However, the cruise line spokesperson maintains that it is their policy never to serve alcohol to guests who are already intoxicated.
And this is possibly the crux of much personal injury litigation regarding holiday accidents and personal injury suffered thereupon. People go on holiday to have a good time; they are in a strange place, off their guard and may indulge in intoxicating substances in a way in which they would not normally. And, as such, many dreadful tragedies probably never get scrutinised with the seriousness they deserve because personal injury solicitors are on to a hiding to nothing when presented with the majority of holiday accident cases.
Interestingly, the 'passenger overboard' statistics quoted in the American article had been collected by a university professor, but were only extractable from media reports as "there is no central government agency that tracks disappearances or deaths or falls from cruise ships."
That seems like a worrying fact to me. Holiday accidents are serious and if, like one of the cases mentioned by the university professor, you go away on a cruise ship with a husband and come back without one, surely these 'mishaps' should be more thoroughly investigated and reported.