Legal Situation When a Four Year Old Drowns on a Cruise Ship
Horrific accidents sometimes happen, but could they have been prevented? That is very likely the question on the minds of the parents of a four-year-old Florida boy who drowned in a pool onboard a Norwegian cruise ship. Often, such accidents are grounds for legal action because they are not purely accidents, but the result of the negligence of any number of individuals or groups.
Negligence
When so-called accidents happen, they are rarely pure twists of cruel fate. More often than not, someone either took action or failed to take action, and that action or inaction led to the injury or death. In the cruise ship case, there are any number of legal implications. The pool, especially if the child was part of the company’s “Slash Academy” child program, should have been carefully monitored by trained professionals. This monitoring should have been sufficient to prevent the fatal drowning of any child. Even if the child was in a regular pool, there should have been lifeguards on duty to prevent such accidents. Not having such precautions is negligence on behalf of the cruise line and can be grounds for a wrongful death lawsuit against them. The negligence may also be attributed to the policies the cruise ship may not have had in place. Given the child’s age, was a special pool available for that child of an appropriate depth and reserved for only children near his age? Was he required to wear a life jacket or some other floatation aide that would have helped prevent drowning?
These are all questions that a qualified Coral Springs cruise ship lawyer such as Evan Ostfeld and his firm can help a client to answer.
How Can a Lawyer Help?
A personal injury and wrongful death attorney can help the victims and their families, such as the parents of this Florida boy, to get some form of compensation for their loss. This compensation comes in the form of damages. In the case of a wrongful death, the court provides compensation for the loss of life and the pain and suffering of the ordeal to the surviving family members. Such cases can be tricky, and not surprisingly the accused party will claim that they had nothing to do with the accident or that it was in fact the fault of the plaintiff. The Norwegian’s corporate attorneys will doubtless try to pin the death on the negligence of the parents, adding more hardship to an already incredibly painful situation. They will need someone to support them and get them the compensation they deserve.
If you or someone you know have been in a similar legal situation, contact our firm at 866-478-3968.
