Slip & Fall on Cruise Ships

Cruise ships can often be overcrowded, busy, and the size of a small city. This means that sometimes it is difficult for the cruise liner company and the staff to keep up with every aspect of the ship. When this happens and the ship is not properly kept up, accidents happen.

The majority of cruise ship accidents include: 

• slip and falls, 
• falling overboard, 
• fallen objects, 
• dock accidents, 
• swimming pool or water slide injuries, 
• injuries on excursions taken on the shore, 
• medical malpractice, and 
• sexual or physical assault. 

The majority of these accidents come down to negligence and whether it can be proven or not.

Who Is Responsible For Injuries in a Cruise Ship Accident?

A cruise ship owner can be legally responsible for negligence when an accident happens as a result of insufficient emergency precautions, poor maintenance, lack of security, poor sanitation, or incompetent staff. The cruise ship company owes a legal duty to passengers to act with reasonable care under the circumstances. If this standard is not met, they have likely been negligent. If any member of the staff is found responsible for the accident, the cruise ship company can still be answerable for any injuries or damages. Additionally, with cruise ship accidents, maritime law usually applies. Under maritime law, a cruise ship is only liable for the accident if a plaintiff can show that a ship’s operator knew or should have known about an unsafe condition on the ship. 

Claims About Cruise Ship Injuries

An attorney that specializes in maritime law can be exceptionally helpful in cruise ship accidents. Cruise ships often limit when and where you can file your cruise ship injury claim through your ticket purchase agreement. In addition to the limitations in the passenger ticket terms and conditions, complicated elements of maritime law apply. 

Where to File Your Cruise Ship Injury Claim

An attorney that specializes in maritime law knows that it consists of state and federal statutes, international treaties, and even agreements between governments made through the United Nations. Your attorney will look into things like if the accident took place on a foreign flagship in international waters or whether your country of origin matters. These are all things that can impact whether and where you have a case. Additionally, both admiralty and maritime laws of another country may apply even if the victim and the cruise company are based within the United States. Operators for excursions off the ship may also be the cause of your injury. When this happens, an attorney with knowledge of the law of foreign nation states becomes critical. When a cruise ship accident occurs in non-navigable waters in the United States, the cruise ship may be considered a common carrier. Common carriers have a heightened duty of care to provide safe transportation to passengers. This duty extends to protection against third-party criminal acts like rape, sexual assault, or battery. The statute of limitations, or the timeframe between an incident and when you file a lawsuit, is usually much shorter in these cases. Usually, the statute of limitations is only one year from the accident to filing the lawsuit. 

Further Limits on When and Where to File Your Claim

Anyone that has gotten on a cruise ship is unlikely to have read their ticket, especially not the details of the fine print. Passenger ticket contracts or employment contracts for a cruise ship are also known as a “contract of carriage.” This means that your ticket is a contract with the cruise liner. These contracts often limit where a victim’s rights can be enforced and the timeframe in which that has to be done. This is the one year statute of limitations mentioned above. Those are not the only requirements that the contracts can entail. Most of these contracts also require you to provide written notice of your intent to pursue a claim to the cruise line within six months from the injury date. Some of these contracts also require the accident to be documented while on board. This leaves little time to investigate the issue, and requires that you and your attorney act fast. An experienced attorney can help you determine if your case has exceeded the statute of limitations and if you are within six months from the accident to notify the cruise line.

What To Do If You Are Injured 

With such a small amount of time to develop your claim and the requirements of a passenger ticket, it is important that you report the incident to a security officer immediately. If medical attention is necessary you should seek out the ship’s infirmary and report your injuries so they are documented. After that, they should take your statement which you should receive a copy of as soon as you’ve given the statement. You should not rely on the cruise ship to report the incident, and report it as soon as you can. Cruise liners are not required to provide you with any documentation or to take photographs of the scene. They will not provide you with evidence, so it is important that you gather it on your own. Collect a copy of your police report, a report of your injuries, and take pictures of the scene and your injuries. If anyone saw the incident, you should collect the names and contact information for those witnesses. 

What Can You Recover In a Cruise Ship Accident Claim?

When a cruise liner has not met the duty of care owed to its passengers and found negligent, an experienced attorney can help you get compensation. If you or a loved one was injured during your time on a cruise ship you may be able to be compensated for: 

• Current and future medical costs
• Current and future rehabilitation costs
• Loss of wages (including future wages)
• Inhibited earning capacity
• Wrongful death claims
• Pain and suffering

Every case is different. The differing circumstances regarding each case means the value of your claim cannot be determined until a thorough examination is conducted by an attorney. If you or a family member has experienced an injury or assault aboard a cruise ship or participating in cruise ship activities, you should immediately contact an attorney who is experienced in handling these types of cases.  Cruise ship injury cases are complicated, and you need an attorney you trust to help you navigate your case.

Millions of Americans board cruises every year, and the more people the more likely an accident is to happen. The most common accidents on cruise ships are slip and fall accidents.

Cruise lines have a duty to exercise reasonable care in maintaining the ship for their passengers. However, wet, slippery decks, lots of area to maintain, and other factors make cruise ships uniquely prone to slip and fall accidents.

These accidents can happen on an open deck, by the pool, in a restaurant, a theater, in bathrooms, on a dance floor, and in other common areas. Additionally, under United States maritime law, there is a minimum threshold of slip resistance under wet and dry conditions that the floor surfaces have to meet called the “coefficient of friction.”

This means that cruise ship operators are required to provide adequate slip resistance on open decks and walkway surfaces.

Common Causes of Cruise Ship Slip and Fall Accidents 

The accidents mainly happen on the pool deck. This area of the ship is covered in resin flooring on most modern cruise ships. This material is less prone to cracking and separating when the steel deck underneath expands or contracts. However, a small amount of water can make this resin material slick and cause accidents. Slip and fall accidents can also occur because of inadequate lighting, failure to repair or replace stair railings, failure to repair worn-down non-skid deck surfaces, or the cruise ship’s swaying and movements.

Dangerous conditions created by other passengers include, but are not limited to: spilled drinks, wet or foreign substances, food in restaurants, and loose flooring to water tracked in by guests using the swimming pools. Some injuries may result from negligent design or negligent maintenance on the part of the cruise liner. Lastly, severe weather like wind, heavy rain, and rough seas are also common contributing factors to slip and fall accidents. 

Common Injuries from Cruise Ship Slip and Fall Accidents

Slip and fall injuries on cruise ships can often be more serious than those on land. When someone falls on a cruise ship, they may fall from a great height and possibly go overboard only compounding their injury and possibly threatening their lives. The majority of cruise ship passengers are also over 50, so these kinds of accidents can cause them more serious injuries.

The most common injuries resulting from cruise ship slip and fall accidents are:

• Broken Bones to Arms and Legs
• Orthopedic Injuries
• Head Injuries
• Fractures Requiring Surgical Repair
• Ligament Injuries
• Tendon Injuries
• Brain Injuries
• Injuries to Extremities like Hands, Wrists, and Knees
• Concussions and Closed Head Injuries
• Back and Spinal Cord Injuries
• Lacerations and Contusions

Liability

Under federal maritime law, cruise line operators owe a legal duty of reasonable care. Cruise line operators and their employees are legally responsible for keeping their decks, floor surfaces and other common areas on the vessel in a safe condition. When a cruise liner or its employees have failed to do this, they have likely been negligent and can be held liable for your injuries. 

What constitutes reasonable care is different for each individual case. Sometimes a visual or verbal warning about an area or marking off said area can be enough to constitute reasonable care. However, not every danger is immediately cleaned up or blocked off from unsuspecting passengers.

If the dangerous condition existed long enough, regardless of who created it, that it should have been noticed and taken care of, the cruise line has a legal obligation to clean it up, give a warning, or block off the area. If this is still not done and you are injured, the cruise liner may be found negligent and responsible for your injuries. 

Under the federal maritime law, cruise liners also owe a legal duty to warn customers about known dangers. This means a cruise liner can be liable for your injuries for something as small as failing to put up a wet floor sign if that wet floor caused your injury.

Additionally, even if you know a specific employee created the hazard or failed to warn of the hazard, the cruise liner can still be held liable for the actions of their employees acting within the scope of their employment. Liability is not easy to determine on your own, but an experienced personal injury attorney can help you build a case to hold the cruise line liable for your slip and fall injuries. 

Building a Case

Most cruise liners have you enter into a passenger ticket contract when you purchase your cruise tickets. These contracts often limit when, where, and some of the procedures you will have to follow to successfully file your cruise ship slip and fall lawsuit.

These contracts may limit your time to file a lawsuit to as little as one year between the accident and filing. Most of these contracts also require you to provide written notice of your intent to pursue a claim to the cruise line within six months from the injury date. Some of these contracts also require the accident to be documented while on board. 

If you are injured, you should first seek treatment for your injuries. However, with such a small amount of time to develop your claim and meet the requirements of a passenger ticket, it is important that you report the incident to a security officer as soon as possible.

Cruise liners are not required to provide you with any documentation or to take photographs of the scene. It is important that you gather any evidence that you believe will help your case on your own. Collect a copy of your police report, a report of your injuries, and take pictures of the scene and your injuries. If anyone saw the incident, you should collect the names and contact information for those witnesses.

Then, you should write down the events that led to your injury as best as you can recall. All of this will be helpful to your attorney in building the strongest case possible for you. A lawyer experienced in both maritime and personal injury law can help you build your cruise ship slip and fall injury lawsuit. Your lawyer will help you pinpoint the cause of your accident, determine if the cruise liner can be held liable, and get you compensation for your injuries.

Cruise ship injury cases are complicated, and you need an attorney you trust to help you navigate your case.