Ten-Year-Old Drowned on Norwegian Ship Because Cruise Line Won’t Employ Lifeguards, Family Claims
by Jessica Lipscomb of miaminewtimes.com
On the second day of a seven-day cruise from New York to Florida and the Bahamas last year, two young children briefly escaped from their mother’s sight and somehow landed in the pool. Within moments, both kids were yanked from the water at opposite ends of the pool.
But it wasn’t lifeguards who jumped in to rescue the siblings. Instead, the lifesaving attempts were made by passengers with medical backgrounds, who desperately began resuscitation efforts while calling for help. That’s because Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line does not employ lifeguards for its on-ship pools.
Although one of the children was safely rescued that day — May 17, 2015 — the other sibling died onboard the ship, called the Gem. She was 10 years old. Last week, Miami maritime attorney Michael Winkleman filed a lawsuit against the cruise line on behalf of the children’s mother, Colleen Blair of New York, alleging Norwegian was negligent by not providing lifeguards at the pools.
“Numerous children have died or been grievously injured on board NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) ships and other cruise ships due to drowning or near drowning prior to this incident, yet NCL does not even spend a single penny on utilizing lifeguards on board its ships to prevent these tragedies,” the complaint reads.
No, the 10 year old drowned because the parents were having too much fun to properly and adequately supervise their kids on that cruise ship. Even if the cruise line had lifeguards, which no cruise line that I am aware of does have, it does not absolve parents from keeping an eye on them and knowing exactly where they are and what they are doing while on a ship that is out at sea.
I agree completely. When are parents going to become responsible for their kids. It seems that every time something happens to them, it’s someone else’s fault. Just like the kid in Cincy who fell into the gorilla enclosure and then the innocent gorilla paid the ultimate price. How about we sue the parents instead. Or maybe just send them to OZ to get a brain.
Your child your #1 job.
How about suing parents for criminal negligence? If there will be a law that parents who fail to watch over their kids while on vacation will go to jail and lose parental rights, then they’ll pay attention to children and we’ll no longer see cases like this.
I’ve been recently (at the end of May) on a cruise on Norwegian Gem from New York to Bahamas and could not enjoy the adult pool completely because there were some unsupervised kids who hit me while jumping in the pool. It hurt a lot and their parents were just smiling, and didn’t say anything to them for doing this, neither for being in the adult pool.
I don’t know what really happened with that girl and why the parents didn’t supervised her and her brother, however to sue the company and ask money for failing to give proper care to your own kid is a miserable act.