Personal Injury Law

Passenger dies after cruise ship sails into 80mph storm

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

A cruise passenger died from a brain haemorrhage after her ship was hit by a horrific 80mph storm.

Barbara Davey fell into a coma three days after being thrown about in her cabin when giant waves battered Royal Caribbean cruise liner Brilliance of the Seas in the Mediterranean.

She was taken to hospital when the super-ship finally docked in Malta ? but she never recovered and was airlifted back to Britain.

Now her husband John wants answers as to why the ship sailed into the storm ? ­despite warnings from weathermen.

?Barbara lapsed into ­uncon- sciousness before my eyes, fell into a coma and never woke up,? said John, who had to make the ­agonising ­decision to switch off her life-­support ­machine earlier this month.

He has instructed specialist maritime solicitors to sue Royal Caribbean over the ­incident on December 12.

The storm had been forecast, with passengers warned during the journey to expect a ?bumpy? night. John, of Dunfermline, Fife, says the ship could have avoided the storm if it had stayed docked.

But he claims the ship sailed on because Royal Caribbean didn?t want to disrupt the schedule.

His solicitor Clive Garner, of Irwin Mitchell, said: ?We will be investigating a number of issues including the reasonableness of actions taken by the captain when the storms were first forecast.?

The couple had paid £2,700 for their deluxe ocean-view stateroom cabin for the trip around Europe and North Africa. Taxi driver John said: ?This was our holiday of a lifetime before our retirement? but it has turned into a nightmare which will never end for me.?

Barbara and John boarded the 90,000-ton liner in Barcelona on December 5. It was carrying 2,500 passengers and 800 crew when it left Rhodes on December 12 under Captain Erik Tengelsen. The ship was bound for ­Alexandria in Egypt... but never got there. The severe storms struck two days later. John said: ?On the way from Rhodes, the captain told the crew to empty the pools and shut off some of the deck areas. I can?t understand why we didn?t stay in Rhodes until the storm passed.

Originally Posted at: www.mirror.co.uk

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on January 30, 2011 (boomark / email).