Tragic Accident During Cruise Excursion to Belize Leaves Family Devastated
Cruises should be non-stop enjoyment and most people never give a second thought to the possibility that a tragic and senseless accident could alter their lives forever.
The victim in this wrongful death case was married to her husband for 26 years and was the mother of three adult children. She was a beloved registered nurse at the Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida, where she worked in the neonatal intensive care unit. She and her husband were a fun-loving couple who had been working and saving their entire married lives, raising their children and planning the good life they would be sharing now that their children were grown. The couple was part of a running group, and they would often run in marathons together. They loved traveling and were now at the point in their lives of just enjoying life and reaping the rewards after their years of hard work.
The couple set sail on a seven day cruise with one of the major cruise lines from Port Canaveral, Florida. After enjoying the cruise for a few days, the ship arrived in Belize, Central America early one morning. The victim and her husband had purchased a cave-tubing excursion and joined dozens of other cruise ship passengers for the day long excursion to the Sibun River – Caves River Branch. After arriving in Belize via boat tender, the couple took a bus charter with approximately 40 other passengers to the tubing site.
Upon arriving at the river, the throngs of passengers were given an inner tube, a very basic life vest, and a head lamp. The long line of passengers then crossed the river via a long rope, which led to a path to head up the mountain. Once they hiked to the point of entry to the river, the passengers were allowed to free-float in and out of the various caves back to the point where they crossed the river with the rope.
Due to the excessive volume of passengers, there were not enough tour operators to safely link together all of the passengers. The end result was that many of the passengers, including the victim and her husband, were allowed to free-float down the river even though there were many dangerous areas in the caves.
An added danger to this excursion was that the water level was quite high and the current was very strong on this day. A later report from Eye Witness News Channel 9 in Orlando, Florida confirms that participants were allowed to free-float into dangerous areas without supervision and guidance, and that panic-stricken bedlam occurred when passengers crashed into each other in the pitch dark caves.
Witnesses have provided testimony that the victim and her husband were sucked into a whirlpool as if they were inside a washing machine, even with their life vests on. The victim in this tragic case was trapped and did not survive. Her husband was very fortunate that he did not drown when he was sucked into the same violent downward spiral that caused the death of his wife.
The surviving husband contacted Attorney Jason Weisser to bring suit against the cruise line, which was also in charge of excursions on the cruise. Mr. Weisser stated that negligence against the cruise line, based on their willful and wanton disregard for the victim’s life, was blatantly obvious when considering the following factors:
• Violation of Local Statutory Instruments;
• Insufficient Supervision;
• Poorly Trained Tour Operators;
• Failure to Monitor Weather Conditions;
• Use of Unsafe Equipment;
• Virtually Non-Existent Rescue Procedures;
• Failure to Warn Passengers of Known Dangers (Based on Past Near-Death Experiences).
In fact, the cruise line violated several of the local statutes, but one in particular that stands out states that tour operators must provide one tour guide for every eight guests for every marine based tour. Witnesses will testify that this cruise line only provided two tour guides on this excursion for approximately 40 people.
Not only did the excursion have a lack of tour operators, but the two that were present appeared to have little concern for the safety of the participants. Witnesses will testify that on the bus heading to the caves, the guides asked weaker swimmers to identify themselves by raising their hands. The victim and her husband raised their hands thinking that perhaps it would make a difference in the standard of care and guidance that they would receive. However, the raising of the hands was moot in that they were ultimately ignored like so many others that day that were allowed to free-float down the river.
Photographs of the victim hanging onto the rope just after she entered the water to cross the river show that she was wearing an unsafe and substandard life vest with only one buckle when compared to the life vest being worn by the assistant in the background in the photo with three buckles. Had the victim been provided with a vest similar to the vest that the tour assistant was given, she may be alive today.
Perhaps the most upsetting part of this tragedy is that the guides had absolutely no idea how to handle the emergency at hand. One of the witnesses who was instrumental in the retrieval of the victim’s body and revival attempts will testify that one tour guide was panic stricken to such a degree that she did not assist in the rescue effort. The witness stated that she was first crying hysterically, and then she was nowhere to be found. The witness testimony clearly supports that the tour guides either had no training in first aid or other emergency measures and/or were totally ill-prepared for the emergency, which led to their inability to assist in the rescue efforts.
Understandably, the surviving husband has been absolutely devastated by what happened to his wife, not to mention the fact that he almost drowned at the same time. He has had to undergo counseling and has had many sleepless nights and has actually contemplated suicide based on his severe loneliness. He has described the horrible situation of those moments and felt very guilty that he was alive and yet he lost his wife. The adult children will now miss having their mother present for all the special occasions in their lives yet to come. Her grandchildren will never again get to feel the warm hugs of their grandmother.
The fact that Mr. Weisser was able to show the willful and wanton disregard and total lack of care for human life that led to the victim’s death was a major factor in his ability to successfully settle this case with the defense without the necessity of a trial to bring some amount of closure to this family and hopefully cause this cruise line to institute safer and smarter practices in dealing with its passengers in the future.
