Cayman cruise vistor gets $125,000 for broken leg
(CBS4): A 67-year-old woman said she had hoped her first vacation on a cruise ship would be smooth sailing. But Elizabeth Reimer, who lives in Texas, said things turned turbulent when she took a misstepwhile boarding a Carnival Cruise ship. She reached a settlement with the Miami-based company on Thursday, for $125,000. The ships in Grand Cayman must stay anchored off shore, Carnival said in a statement. Passengers need to board a small tender boat to get to the dock. They are operated by another company. As Elizabeth exited the tender, she fell. Her leg was caught between the boat and the dock.
"The boat fell away from the dock and it was an open place, and I could see the water as my leg went down," said Reimer, describing how, she says, she almost drowned. "It has made me have nightmares about falling into this void that I can’t get out of and drowning." She spent the rest of the cruise in a wheelchair.
Carnival’s statement: "Since there is no cruise ship dock in Grand Cayman, all cruise passengers there are transported from ships to town via tenders operated by Caribbean Marine Services for the island. Upon arrival at the tender dock, the subject sustained a fracture of her tibia (lower leg) when trying to transit from the tender to the dock. She was transported by Carnival’s port agent to the hospital in Grand Cayman where she was treated and released and transported back to the tenderdock by Carnival’s port agent to rejoin the ship. The subject completed the cruise, although with the aid of a wheelchair. Medical bills at the Grand Cayman hospital were covered by travel insurance. Carnival can confirm that it settled the subject lawsuit yesterday. It is our policy not to publicly release details of settlements."
Category: Business
Third world set up my ***! It’s simply because the people in the islands are hesitate to build a dock that could very well do damage to our sea, reef and it’s life! If the waters were that rough, I would not have went! It’s called COMMONSENSE! No one is blame when it comes to the weather but once to are stupid enough to go out on a small tender boat in rough seas, YOU TAKE WHAT YOU GET!
That’s right – there’s no way in hell we’re obligated to make the landing facilities safe for our tourists, and if they’re STUPID enough to try to enter these Islands presuming that we’ve made it safe for them to do so, well then just xxxx them too, that’s what I say. Who needs those stupit tourists anyway?
And the fall into third-world status goes on, without mystery. Good work man!
This is very bad news for Cayman. The cruise ships will again be reconsidering whether to stop at Cayman given these kind of difficulties.
Just noticed I missed a point:
"the subject completed the cruise"
Oh she was so traumatised ("It has made me have nightmares about falling into this void that I can’t get out of and drowning.") that instead of flying back home she neede to take a cruise….come on!
I’m surprised there have not been a bunch of law-suits over the corny hell jokes occurring daily at that fine tourist destination
While I’ve never been on a cruise, or fallen and broken a leg, I have been invited on a warship quite far out at sea a few years back. It was very choppy so I decided since I’m short and rather round I was not going to risk trying to board the ship and the tender kindly took me back to shore. The Captain offered his apologies, which was unnecessary as he has no control over the weather or my physical size.
XXXXXX
Having taken a number of cruises and not being overly young I cannot but think that this is another case of the U.S.A. attitude of "sue somebody and get rich"!
Every cruise passenger is informed in no uncertain terms when a ship calls into a port of call where disembarkation is by tender. I believe that it is the passengers responsibility to decide if they are fit enough to use a tender service or not. This lady (no doubt encouraged by some Lawyer) saw an opportunity to make some money. Only in the U.S.A. can a person sue another party for self inflicted injuries. Just take a little time to investigate some of the absolutely ridiculous cases that people bring against third parties and you will see what I mean.
Gee, you don’t think a company that markets elderly ladies to go on cruises ought to have a safe way to get them on and off? She didn’t sign onto a crab boat in the Bering Sea. There’s no excuse whatever for letting a passenger fall between a boat and a dock. The crew has to help if needed and has to make the decision if there’s too much movement for safety. It could have been much worse.
Or perhaps you work for the tender company. Hard to see your point of view otherwise.
self inflicted??!
Should be an eye opener for the people who oppose the new cruise ship dock. The present arrangement is a time bomb ready to cause an accident .
Let us all work together to getthe dock constructed and benefit from the positives which come from a facility like that
Thank you effwit. Modifications to the port facility MIGHT insure that nothing bad ever happens there. and there might never be an incident if a new port facility were constructed in GT. But there are no guarantees.
You want a sure thing? Bet that everyone you vote for will sell your future for whatever coin they can get.
and what about the people who were trapped on a tender in rough seas for 3-4 hours a couple of years ago???
people vomitting and forced to urinate overboard…. what a joke…3rd world set-up!
did they vomit overboard as well. You don’t make that clear.
thank you mr dart, mr glidden (electric) and that guy that is so graciously providing mechanical services for the new school for the children of cayman
So Carnival was negligent (and the tender company was not)? Of course not, it just settled out of court instead to get rid of the case. One has to wonder why??
Clears the way for anyone getting off a cruise ship in Cayman and hurting themselves in the process to blame the cruise company, ignore the tender company, instigate legal action and get a nice settlement. What a stupid policy for Carnival to follow. Memo to self: remember to graze a leg on a tender’s rusty nail next time I disembark a cruise