What was supposed to be a fun adventure aboard a Royal Caribbean voyage quickly turned into a disaster for one family after a tour guide violently crashed into a woman on a jet ski excursion.
Leesfield & Partners has recently filed suit in the case seeking damages for the severe injuries that Royal Caribbean’s tour guide caused to our client in the crash. The case is being handled by Partner Justin B. Shapiro.
What Happened?
At least two people and their dog were left stranded, clinging to a buoy in the Tampa Bay over the weekend, officials said in a news release Monday.
The incident happened before 6 p.m. Saturday near Gadsen Point after a cruise ship caused a wake that made their boat crash and sink. Both boaters were injured in the incident and swam to the buoy to wait for help.
U.S. Coast Guard officials as well as deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office found the trio at 6:11 p.m. Both people were taken to a local hospital.
A utility task vehicle (UTV) cruise ship excursion in the Bahamas became deadly following the tragic death of an Illinois passenger. Now, the man’s friend who was driving the vehicle is facing felony charges.
James Darling, 21, of Park Forest, Illinois, was recently charged with vehicular manslaughter in the death of his friend, according to local media. Darling also faces additional drug charges.
The incident happened on Oct. 20 in Arawak Cay, a man-made island in Nassau that is also known as Fish Fry.
A woman sues SeaWorld after being injured at its Aquatica water park on a slide last year when another patron “violently colliding” with her.
The woman was visiting SeaWorld’s Aquatica in Orlando when she said she went on a slide that had no lifeguard stationed outside of it to monitor when patrons had safely gone down the slide and give permission for the next person to go. Before the woman got off her water slide, another adult guest got on and “violently colliding” with her, causing her permanent injury, her attorneys said in the lawsuit.
This story is, unfortunately, not unique. A 7-year-old at Jungle Island in Miami visiting the park with his summer camp was luckily saved by a lifeguard who saw the child, not wearing a life vest, struggling in the water. The lifeguard performed CPR on the child who had to be taken to the hospital where he went into cardiac arrest but, thankfully, came out of the ordeal safely, according to previous reporting of the incident.
While packing sunscreen or researching potential sights to see, no one expects that their long-awaited cruise vacation might end in tragedy. However, in its decades of practice, Leesfield & Partners has seen all too well just how easily these trips can take a turn for the worse.
Whether it be crashes on excursion buses, slipping on decks void of regulation handrails or an on-board medical professional refusing to evacuate a guest, Leesfield & Partners has seen families through it all. These tragic injuries have changed the lives of cruise ship guests, employees, and their loved ones, forever marring what should have been a beautiful memory of a relaxing getaway or just another day at work.
In 2023, approximately 7.3 million people went through Port Miami on their way to their cruises.
A family cruise turned tragic when a parasailing excursion went awfully wrong, taking the life of a mother and wife. During the cruise, the mother and daughter purchased a shore excursion offered aboard the cruise ship, a parasail excursion which would take place after the ship docked at one of its scheduled stops.
After the parasail operators sent mom and daughter up in the sky, the rope broke off due to heavy winds and dangerous weather conditions. This resulted in the two passengers to plummet into the water at a very high rate of speed. The force of the impact caused traumatic injuries to daughter and mom sustained fatal injuries.
Leesfield & Partners filed suit against the carrier and the tour operator. The cruise carrier argued that the tour operator was an independent contractor and that the responsibility of the cruise line could not and was not engaged. Ultimately, after several months of litigation, our maritime law attorneys secured a $7.25 million settlement on behalf of the family and daughter.
According to reports, half a dozen Princess Cruise passengers have died in a horrific mid-air collision incident. The tour – Misty Fjords National Monument by Seaplane (with Wilderness Landing) – was booked through Princess Cruises, either on board or on Princess Cruises’ website.
Photo from Taquan Air’s website – Taquan Air was involved in the mid-air collision over Alaska on May 13, 2019
The investigation into the circumstances and causes of the collision are already under way with teams from the Coast Guards, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board already on scene.
Awful cruise line news broke last week about a newlywed couple who collided with each other during a zip line tour in Roatan, Honduras, resulting in death and injuries. The individuals involved in the incident, an Israeli couple, were celebrating their honeymoon with a cruise vacation on Royal Caribbean’s vessel Allure of the Seas. Sadly, it is a scene repeated all too often.
Cruise lines, which form a $40 billion dollar a year industry, derive substantial profits from shore excursions which they market and sell to passengers as part of the cruise vacation experience. Passengers should be very cautious before deciding to go on a cruise sanctioned shore excursion, as many of the basic safety standards and regulations mandated in the United States go absent or unenforced in foreign cruise ports of call.
In the last few years there have been many injuries and deaths from zip lining incidents during a cruise line shore excursion. In fact, several such incidents have occurred before in Roatan, Honduras. In 2015 a passenger on Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas was horrifically injured while zip lining in Roatan on a zip line that was negligently operated with too much slack in the line. In 2009 a passenger on a Norwegian Cruise Line vessel plummeted to her death when a zip line cable in Gumbalimba Park, Honduras, snapped in mid air. There have been many other instances of death and injury from zip lining in other foreign ports of call, normally from faulty equipment and excursion operator error.
Cruise lines and recreational activity providers market their products as gateways to fun and adventure, but when injury occurs, they will vigorously fight to avoid liability. But there are ways to overcome their defenses.
By Ira H. Leesfield and Leesfield & Partners Attorneys
Outdoor recreation is a titanic industry, enticing millions of people annually to travel close to home or pack their bags for a faraway adventure. Entrepreneurs across the world capitalize on their regions’ natural beauty and create exotic excursions to attract vacationers. Meanwhile, corporate powerhouses—major resorts and cruise lines—recognize the allure of exciting experiences in unfamiliar environments, and they aggressively advertise and oversee these adventures. But when tragedy strikes—such as jet ski crashes, scuba diving drowning, all-terrain vehicle accidents, etc.—the same tour operators and vacation providers who courted your client fervently try to avoid accountability.
With the main cruise ship companies based in Miami, Leesfield & Partners has represented countless families of cruise passengers who lost their lives or who were gravely injured while on a cruise excursion. Whether a son killed in a bus accident in front of his parents on their way to an excursion, or a mother fatally injured and daughter sustaining extreme brain damage during a parasailing excursion, or a husband drowning during a snorkel excursion, the pattern of negligence is often the same in each and every case. Cruise lines will advertise their ships as the safest floating cities on the planet, but the truth is the excursions cruise lines select for their passengers are less than safe, if not downright dangerous.
Cruise lines will sell excursions to their passengers, either during the booking process on the internet, or directly on the ship. Excursions represent a major selling point and entice most passengers to purchase excursions as a way of visiting far away countries and islands while the ship is docked. Unfortunately, passengers are led to believe that cruise lines are in charge of running these excursions and maintaining the equipment pertaining to, or the transport to and from a cruise excursion. However, that cannot be further from the truth.
In the last 24 hours, Royal Caribbean (owner of Celebrity Cruises) has confirmed that several cruise passengers (Celebrity Equinox & Serenade of the Seas) were fatally injured in a bus crash in Eastern Mexico. The bus company selected by Royal to transport its passengers, Costa Maya Mahahual, confirmed that they had just picked up passengers who had boarded off two cruise ships that had just docked in the coastal town of Mahahual. The excursion sold by Royal was a guided tour of the Mayan Ruins located in Chacchoben, which is approximately 100 miles west from the port.
Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog