Victim Story: Andrea Davis, Costa Concordia

Sadly the list of victims is growing every single day. Andrea Davis was on the Costa Concordia when it hit rocks and sank of the coast of Italy on January 12th 2012, and the following is her telling of this horrible ordeal. Our thoughts are with her and her family as well as the countless others who were on this ship.

Andrea Davis

Survival Was Only The Beggining

Our friends we had met on day two over dinner were waiting for us at the bus, displaying their sheer pleasure of the riches of Rome. We drove back expressing moods of exhilaration and excitement, boarded the ship, met for drinks and were enjoying our evening wine over dinner at 9.30 when the first sounds of this horrific life altering accident were heard. Crash, crunch and the sound of scraping noises and …… total darkness. Screaming and crying, glasses and breaking bottles tumbling, wine glasses shattering, wine and food…..everywhere. “Laurence, grab my purse and shoes from under the table”. The emergency generators triggers in limited lighting.

 

“Attention, attention: We are experiencing an electrical problem that is currently being taken care of. Please remain clam, we will keep you updated.” English was the last of around 7 languages and was difficult to hear instructions over people’s panic. Scrambling to our knees, crawling along the floor for shelter of falling glass, chandeliers, plates, food and drink. I heard our friend’s voice in panic crying….. I will not get back on board tomorrow after port, I will rather fly home. Did we know none of us would get back on board…..but how were we going to get off!

 

Time was endless, panic was amplifying, fear and confusion was overwhelming. Hours of hysteria and pandemonium…….there was very little information. It was 10.58, approximately one hour and 28 minutes after the first sounds of this life altering accident, when eventually we heard what we had been dreading…. Beep, beep, beep … 6 short beeps followed by a long signal….Attention, attention, will all passengers make their way to deck 4 to abandon this ship. Against gravity, objects are flying, people scrambling, bodies knocking down like ten-pins, bones breaking, doors off hinges, faces through glass panes…..Children crying, mothers screaming, sons and fathers helping the disabled…Where were we all heading?

 

Simply, there was no escape. Most passengers had life vests but we were not able to go back to our cabin, it was not an option. “There will always be life vests at your muster station” we were told at Emergency Drill. The Emergency Drill that we had attended was different to any other drill, previously experienced on prior cruises. This was merely a demonstration on-screen, turned into a social entertainment event in one of the ships lounges. Muster Station? Where were we supposed to go? There was no instruction, no direction – there was overwhelming stampede and hysteria! Screaming, crying, panic and chaos.

 

When we made our way to deck 4 as we were instructed. We were guided out to the port side of the ship. Lifeboats were already overfilled and could not be launched due to the extreme list and height of the drop to the water. Scrambling and tripping over debris, gushing water, fallen, injured and bloody people, banging and broken doors and glass panes, we were anguished and confused. We were instructed by uncoordinated crew to make our way back across the inside of the ship to the starboard deck. We made our way, against these treacherous elements, eventually reaching the lower side. Again were faced with already overfilled life-boats. “I have place for one more only” … I was told by the controller on the lifeboat in front of me.

Laurence and I looked and each other and moved along further down the deck.

 

Again we were told to move on to the next lifeboat… all the rescue vessels were full. All we got along the way were eventually two life jackets, one pick up off the deck and another thrown back at us from an overfilled lifeboat that was sailing away into the darkness. We attached ourselves to a desperate elderly lady. She spoke no English, she had no help and no clue. We switched our balance to enable a human-chain, hanging on for dear life…, we were now three. How long would it be until there would be enough life boats to evacuate us all?

 

This mass of metal was churning, thrusting, listing and tumbling under and over us.

How much longer would we be able to hang on for dear life and remain afloat, I thought as we witnessed people jumping overboard, landing on overfill lifeboats that were leaving the side of the ship. We heard shrilling screams and cries as these lifeboats were dropped metres down, crashing into the sides of the Concordia and eventually falling forcefully into the water and sailing off into the dark night.

Would these lifeboats come back for us?

 

The crowds on the deck became less as many passengers were taken across. We never knew where to, at the time, but… they had gotten off the ship. Further down the deck, we were now in front; finally it had to be our turn…..There was a malfunctioning barrel containing an inflatable lifeboat in front of us, on the side of the ship. It was lodged and could not be released. People were pulling and tugging at the mechanism, chopping it away with an axe, making every attempt to get it to work. Eventually the barrel landed on the water….thud, splash, crash… this boat began inflating. It had to be our turn to safety. As it was inflating, the ship was sinking faster and faster…. it became trapped beneath the beams of the falling ship, tighter and tighter, there was no way out…. the water is rising, the ship was sinking, the night was so dark, and the cries are amplified.

 

It is cold, our feet and pants are now wet, as we watch and feel the water rising. The ship is sinking faster. We stare at each other and ahead as we see shoes and debris are floating around in the ocean at our feet. The sight of the large C representing Costa on the centre chimney-stack is falling on top of us.

We must make our way to safety….. “there are lights blinking on the other side of the ocean”, I said to Laurence! For us, there was no way out, together we knew, it was either sink or swim ……holding hands we took a huge leap forward and heard splash! It was 12:10 when Laurence’s watch stopped working.

We’re swimming across the Mediterranean; it was the middle of a freezing winter night. Later we were told, the water temperature was a frigid 14 degrees. We were not meant to see the Tuscan Coast this way.

Dark, cold and mechanical, I kicked my shoes off, I was holding onto my ring fingers with my thumb. Laurence was on his back, holding my life vest and shouting, kick, swim, kick, swim…. we are nearly there.

The ship was still tumbling but now we were further than her reach, we are going to make it, we must get to land!

 

We reached the rocks, they were cold and tall. The challenge of survival overtook fear and cold as we scurried up the steep surface of these huge sharp and slimy cliffs. We reached the top, freezing and frightened. How long would it take till they found us? Ocean activity increased, sirens sounded, light-beams shone in the opposite direction – away from us. Rescue activity was all around the sinking ship, we stood shivering and shaking as we watched the Costa Concordia going down. Endless time later, we heard people climbing up the opposite side of these rocks to help bring us down. They lightened up a path, there must be hope… we trekked across coral and stone. “Buddy” led the way. My G-d, Laurence screeched, “look at your feet”! My feet were shredded and cut. I did not know I was hurt, my feet were things at the bottom of my legs – a means to get me down to safety. One of the rescuers stripped off his sweater, grabbed a stone and cut off the sleeves … they tied these threads over my lacerated feet.

SURVIVAL WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING………………….

 

Two and a half years later, as I tell this story I realise there was life before…..and life after. Life will never again be the same again. I have learned …… PTSD is real. This dreaded condition came creeping up on me and gradually overtook my life, my business, my relationships with family and friends and my faith.

I have learned ….. the challenge of being faced with death and the impact of having to have made this decision of possible life over probable death. Of saying goodbye to my beloved husband (and children) as together we plunged in the dark, frigid ocean.

I have learned…the Captain was off the ship, long before the majority of his passengers and crew.

I will never accept that Costa and Carnival have legally been enabled to alleviate themselves of liabilities following this horrific accident by using Schettino as a scapegoat.

I have learned …the trial continues with no evidence being asked of the majority of passengers and little being reported publicly.

I have learned …. the power of the Law. To date we have not been questioned by Costa, as to how we got off the ship, what our circumstances were, during the time of and immediately following the accident.

I have learned…. travel insurance does not cover any such circumstances as “nowhere in the clauses was it written….” we were told!

I have learned…. to let go of my hope of hearing from Costa, as they may have possibly recovered any of our abandoned possessions.

I have learned ….. Passports, T-Shirts and hair brushes can be replaced.

Our lifetime collection of jewelry and family heritage gifts are a cherished memory, softened by gratitude and pain of memory and love.

I have learned… the gratitude of survival has overtaken the pain of our material losses.

Reminders

stand together to create change

My son and I took a much-needed break today. We laid down on the couch and took a nap. This doesn’t happen often so you would think I would feel recharged, but this is not the case. You see, even naps are not void of dreams, and when you are a victim, those dreams are often in some way about the crime. This one was a little different…

Today I had a dream that we were having a party. A family reunion of sorts and my brother Jason who vanished in 2012 showed up. Everyone welcomed him, and went on about their day. Somehow nobody remembered that he had been gone for two years. That he had been killed by the negligence of the cruise industry. That our hearts were ripped out of our chest and stepped on by Holland Americas arrogance. Nobody, that is, but me. I was full of tears, and joy. I wanted to hug him and find out what had been happening to him for the past two years. I wanted to welcome him home and celebrate that I had my big brother back.

The problem here is that he didn’t know what I was talking about, and neither did anyone else. They all thought I was crazy, and so after some time, I started to wonder myself.

When I woke up I was a bit shaken by the dream. I have had hundreds of them where I see him fall, or be thrown, from the ship. Hundreds where I watched him vanish in the dark as the ship sailed away. Even a few where people in uniform, that I assumed were crew members, stood and laughed while I tried to save him. I have never had one like this though. I have come to the conclusion that it was my mind sending me a message. “You are not doing enough, and he is being forgotten.” It was a reminder of the promise I made, and the fact that I was slacking in that promise. I will try not to let it happen again. All of us surviving victims have lives to lead. We don’t get paid in any way for the work we do to save lives, and it becomes disheartening when we see our elected officials take money from these criminals instead of facts from us, but none of that changes the fact that we have a job to do. We have people to honor, lives to save, and laws to pass. If we slack off, as I have, this will never happen. I am back, and ready. This reminder was painful, but needed. ICV will not go away, and neither will this member.

His name is Jason Gregory Rappe’ and with the help of all of you readers, he and countless others will not be forgotten. I will be getting back into posting stories of many various victims, starting tomorrow, as well as trying to keep everyone as informed as I can about what ICV is doing, and what those out to stop us have up their sleeves. Thank you all for reading this and all of these posts. Without the support of the victims, and the country, we will never make any change, so please keep coming back!

You Are Not Alone

I wanted to take a moment to let you all know something. You are not alone. If you have lost a loved one, or been abused in some way on a cruise ship, or had an injury that was not handled well, or any of the other things that we are trying to help put a stop to, you are not alone. The sad fact is that there are many of us. Thousands in fact who have been in one way or another, wronged by the greed, negligence, and lack of morality, held by the cruise industry. For those that share their stories I want to say thank you. You all make our job easier. I know it can be tough to talk about some of the things we have endured. I still tear up when I talk about my brother, and it has been nearly two years. One of the things that has helped is knowing that I am not alone and there are others I can talk to. People who, like me, have learned the hard way about the issues facing the industry, and will not sit by and watch it happen to others without trying to help.

I also want those of you who go on a cruise to know, you are not alone either. You take with you everyone you know. Everyone who loves you or calls you a friend. Please take a moment to look at the short list below, and protect yourself. God forbid something should happen to you, but if it does, hundreds will feel pain. The network of people who feel a deep loss is greater than you know, and by following a few simple steps you can prevent it.

1. Use the buddy system. You are infinitely less likely to become a victim if you are not alone. Also in the case of an overboard situation, having someone with you can mean the difference between life and death, as quickly reporting it is key!

2. Never let anyone into your room. Often times it is a crew member, or someone posing as a crew member that assaults passengers. If they are delivering something, ask them to leave it outside the door and get it when they leave.

3. Keep your door shut and locked at all times. Sometimes it is easy to just “prop” the door open to your cabin. DON’T! An open door serves as an invitation to someone who might want to rob you or do you harm.

4. If you drink (and you probably will) Stay off the deck! So many overboard cases involve alcohol and overserved passengers. Don’t let a good time turn into a tragedy.

5. Wash your hands every chance you get. The more you take care of your own hygiene the less the chance of contracting one of these insane Norovirus outbreaks.

There are many other tips you should follow like stay in well-lit and public areas, but the above should give you a bit of a road map to protecting yourself. I hope you have a great time, and pray that you come home safe!

Bigger. More Exciting. Safer?

Quantam Of The Seas: Because a huge boom that will let you look down at water is more important than saving lives.

It seems that the cruise industry has an answer to all of the turmoil that has been going on. Engine failure, failed inspections, throwing garbage overboard, people going overboard, robberies and murders at various ports, children being molested, women being raped, kids drowning in pools, ships sinking and captains jumping into lifeboats before passengers. All of these have one thing in common it would seem. Bigger ships and more alcohol is needed.

Yep, the cruise industry keeps introducing new unlimited alcohol packages, and larger ships but still has not addressed any of the safety issues. It seems that they believe more, and  drunker passengers is the answer to all of the above problems. Don’t get me wrong, I am not an idiot. I know that not even the most negligent industry in the world could possibly think these are answers to their problems, but it does raise the question as to where the safety upgrades are. With more intoxicated passengers you would think they would want increased security, and functioning man overboard systems. With larger ships and more extravagant “entertainment” you would think they would do better background checks on their medical staff.

Here, however, is the problem. They still don’t care… As long as people keep buying the packages, and taking the cruises, they have no need to spend money on keeping those people safe. Lets think about this for a moment. The cruise industry would probably have to pay up to a couple of million bucks per ship to install the already created and tested man overboard systems. Now that sounds like a lot of money at first, but when Jason Rappe’ went overboard the U.S. Coast Guard spent 1 million on the search for his body. That is just one person. Considering the number of people who go missing, this money adds up fast. And that is just the money without thinking of human life. Now lets look at why that doesn’t matter to the cruise lines. They don’t pay any taxes. The Coast Guard is a free service to them. They come running every time someone vanishes costing the taxpayers millions each year. They search for over boards, pick up sick passengers, fly them to hospitals, and conduct inspections.

All of those services are paid for by American taxpayers. The cruise lines get it for free. Why spend the money on overboard systems when the Coast Guard is there to bail them out? Oh, and by the way, those inspections? They are often failed, but guess what, it doesn’t matter. The ships continue to sail with damaged engines, and they continue to serve spoiled food. They continue to cause outbreaks of Norovirus by not properly cleaning and they continue to lose people at sea.

I am glad the Coast Guard is there. The service they provide is important and I don’t want them to stop helping the cruise industry. I simply want the cruise industry to help pay for those services.

I have written in this blog about many of the things that the industry does that simply are disgusting. I have even asked that you contact your representatives in Washington and ask them to stand up for change. I am not asking anymore. I am begging. We need your help. My brother is gone forever. Mr. Carver will never see his daughter again. Countless children will never trust again due to being attacked and molested. The list of people who have been affected by this negligence is too long to even think about. Please help. Please contact your Senator, or Congressperson or both. Ask them to support the rights of Americans, and all passengers at sea. Ask them to help stop the disgusting labor practices that they force on their crew. Ask them to require that cruise lines using American ports pay a fair share of the taxes that pay the Coast Guard. Ask them to do the right thing.

Please visit our website at: http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org to learn more. You can read victims stories, and understand what we are trying to do and why. If you really want to help you can also donate here: http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org/Donations.html Myself , and all members of ICV do this from our own pockets and are paid nothing, so your donations are a huge help. Fighting a giant like the cruise industry can be expensive and your donations are one of the ways we can stay in the ring!

Where Was ICV?

A week ago the NTSB held a meeting of the minds. CLIA was there, the Coast Guard was there, but where was ICV? Well don’t worry! We WERE there! Ken Carver attended these meetings, but sadly did so as a spectator instead of a speaker.

After many emails and phone calls trying to get them to do the right thing and include us in the hearings we were told no. “This is about safety, not crime,” was the final outcome. Now I am no rocket scientist, but even I know that if you put people in areas where there is a great deal of crime and zero law enforcement, you are endangering those people safety. So in fact the issue of crime and the issue of safety are exactly the same issue. Furthermore, man over boards are 100% a safety issue. Are some of them crimes? In reality yes, in the fantasy world of the cruise industry they are ALL pushed aside as suicides. If it is possible for someone to go overboard, to me, that is a safety issue. When I was a commercial carpenter, we had to wear a harness and ropes to prevent us from falling off of a roof. We also had to build handrails and have a spotter. On a cruise ship there is no harness, there is no spotter, and the handrails are your only means of survival. Lets also remember that a commercial building is not moving. These measures in the construction field were called PPE (personal protection equipment) and they had nothing to do with crime.

I think that there were some good questions asked, and people noticed the lack of answers to those questions, but that does nothing to change the fact that ICV was intentionally left out of these hearings. It is a shame. Day two of the hearings was a long and drawn out “commercial” for how wonderful the cruise industry is. It was so bad that in an email Mr. Carver even said, “ the second day was ALL cruise lines with their power points showing how great they were.  Frankly, it made me sick.  It was clearly set up by CLIA as a PR move.”

I am happy that questions are being asked. It is a step in the right direction, but it is kinda like asking a murder suspect if they committed the murder, and then sending him on his way because he said “no.” Maybe you should question the witness first…

NTSB Announces Meeting On Safety, ICV Requests To Attend Denied

ICV: NTSB Announces Meeting on Safety Issues on Cruise Ships – ICV Not Invited to Join Official Panel Discussions

March 12, 2014 03:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time

PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–International Cruise Victims (ICV), a grassroots movement started just eight years ago to improve safety and security onboard cruise ships, requested to be heard by the National Transportation Safety Board at this month’s upcoming forum, “CRUISE SHIPS, EXAMINING SAFETY, OPERATIONS, AND OVERSIGHT.” This meeting will be held on March 25th and 26th at the offices of the NTSB in Washington, D.C.

Powerful industry giants and trade groups will participate along with regulators at the forum held by the NTSB Office of Marine Safety, which has strong ties to the cruise ship industry. ICV is an organization that is made up of victims of crimes on cruise ships. During the past several years maritime experts have joined with ICV to promote all safety issues regarding cruise ships.

The ICV through its Chairman, Kendall Carver, says the victims and the maritime experts working with ICV should not be excluded because they have much to contribute to understanding the safety issues on cruise ships. Though NTSB generally investigates only transportation losses which occur within the jurisdiction of the United States, the agency’s reach is often extended worldwide to assist other nations and protect American interests. The agency is also charged with the duty to assist the families of victims of accidents and also to advocate and promote safety recommendations. This forum is an opportunity for dialogue between different interests. But that won’t happen.

Cruise ships, operated by United States-based companies such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean, generate most of their revenues from American citizens. To avoid income taxes the cruise operators flag their vessels in foreign tax havens which lack the resources to effectively enforce international maritime laws and safe practices. The result is crushing for families when absent regulation results in disaster. Carver says the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2010 passed by Congress shows the United States can act to protect its citizens by legislating safety measures the flag states lack the resources to provide despite the mandates of international maritime treaties.

ICV has promoted safety improvements and enhanced law enforcement to prevent crime and prosecute criminals for wrongs against passengers. The industry opposed the recent legislation and lobbies to resist proposed legal enhancements to protect passengers. Carver says, “If they won’t give us a seat at the forum table we have no way to be heard unless we speak out publicly.”

Contacts

The International Cruise Victims Association, Inc.
Kendall Carver, 602-852-5896
Chairman
Jamie Barnett, 818-355-6462
President
www.internationalcruisevictims.org

Changing Faces And Small Towns

I hear the argument all the time that over boards are rare when you consider the millions of people who go on cruises each year. The problem with this argument is that it is being looked at with a crooked sense of reality. You see, though it is true that millions of people cruise every single year, a ship should not be looked at by the number of different faces, but instead as a small town.

Many cruise ships will hold four to eight thousand people. Instead of thinking of hundreds of thousands of passengers a year let’s think of it as a town with a population of (the average) six thousand citizens. The appearance of those citizens may change each week, but the population stays the same.

I live in a small town. Not long ago we had a person disappear. This was not only on the news, but the entire town mobilized to search the hills, fields, streets, and anywhere else we could to find them. Thankfully they were found with their truck stuck in the mud up in the hills and all turned out ok. The response from not only the towns people themselves, but the statewide news media showed that something like this is big news. I could not imagine if they had not been found what the alarm would have been, not to mention if someone else vanished as well. I am certain that security measures would be taken as two or more of these instances would prove an epidemic in a town like mine that doubles the population of our floating ones.

My questions now are these. Why, if someone vanishes from a ship/small town at sea, does it not matter? Why is it trivialized, and always blamed on the passenger? Why is NOTHING ever done to prevent it from happening again? If one person dies and it could have been prevented changes should be made to prevent it happening again right?

The cruise lines and internet trolls like to say that they are all suicides. The fact is this is not true. Recently a woman barely survived an attack where she was raped, beaten, and then the crew member that did it tried to throw her overboard to hide the evidence. Had he been successful she would go into the books as another suicide. This happens more than most of you think, and the fact that the cruise industry is covering it up with lies and misinformation is disgusting.

Please contact your local Congress person or Senator and let them know it is time to protect these small towns in the same way we protect the ones on land.

A Simple Question

I have a pretty simple question I would like to pose to all of our readers. This is a question that permeates the minds of victims and their families on a daily if not hourly or even eternal basis. We want to know why the cruise industry sits idly by and allows new victims to be created. Why don’t they do something about it?

I lost my brother on a cruise ship. Many others have lost family members as well, and even more people have lost piece of mind, or confidence in day-to-day life, due to being victims of sexual abuse, rape, assault, theft, or a long list of other crimes. What is the cruise industries answer? “Crime rates at sea are lower than those in a comparable city on land.”  This raises a few issues. 1. Crime rates at sea are only known as those reported by the cruise industry. It is easy to say there is little or no crime when you don’t have to tell anyone when it happens. 2. Who cares? Even if this statement was true, (and I do not believe that to be the case) why does it matter? If you live in a city of 5-8 thousand people and that city has a low crime rate, should they fire all of the police? If a murder happens in that city, is it not just as important to the victims families to find justice as it would be to a family in Chicago? Last year 18 people vanished overboard from cruise ships. That is 18 lives lost, and thousands of family members and friends who lost a loved one. Is that not enough to implement man overboard systems?

The cruise industry argues that the cost of the man overboard systems is too high and they fear false alarms. Let me break a couple of things down. 1st the cost. In the case of my brother Jason Rappe’ the U.S. Coast Guard via U.S. Tax  payers money spent nearly $1 million searching for him. That would have pretty much paid to put the system on the ship. The problem here is the cruise industry pays no taxes so they don’t feel the need to install the systems since uncle Sam will bail them out every time. 2nd is false reports. The systems have been tested. A couple of weeks ago 20/20 did a show where a reporter jumped from a yacht that had been fitted with the technology. The alarms were sounding before she hit the water. Immediately the system showed when and where she went overboard. This allows the crew to instantly check the video surveillance at that spot and see exactly what happened. If it was a false alarm, they would be able to spot that on the camera instantly, at a cost of about 3 minutes for one person. When Jason vanished it took someone reporting him missing, and then 4 more hours before a search even began in the water. Far too much time to even have hope of finding him alive. Had the system been in place the coast guard would have known right where to look instantly saving hundreds of thousands in tax payer money, and very probably my brother’s life.

Now that I have talked about some of the reasons that are obvious, I want to give my opinion on the primary reason they do not want man overboard systems and third-party security. I said it above already. Crime rates at sea are only known as those reported by the cruise industry. It is easy to say there is little or no crime when you don’t have to tell anyone when it happens.

With the proper systems in place, the public would have a much greater knowledge of the true crime numbers at sea. This would in turn hurt the industry by allowing people to make an educated decision on where to spend their vacation, and would lower the number of passengers going on cruises. I understand that this is a business and that it is money driven. The fact is, the industry is probably right. They would see a decline in ticket sales, but I don’t think it would last long. The reason being that if crime is being properly dealt with, and criminals investigated and convicted, the crime rates would drop dramatically. Also lets say the overboard systems were in place last year when those 18 people vanished. What sounds worse to you as a consumer. A: 18 lives lost at sea, or B: 17 of 18 overboard passengers were recovered thanks to new technology. I am going with B! I say 17 of 18 because nothing is going to ever be perfect. Not in the cruise industry or anywhere else. The goal is always perfection, because that would be ideal, but the way to meet a goal is to take steps towards it. To make changes, or attempts at attaining it. Sadly the cruise industry has very different goals. Make as much money as they can from the passengers that don’t get victimized on their ships, while sweeping the others under the rug.

Filtered Facts and Misleading Information: Your Cruise Industry Dollars At Work

On Friday the 17th of January  20/20 did a show about vacations. They included a short segment on man overboard (MOB) systems. This included an interview with a woman by the name of Sarah Kirby who went overboard about a year ago and was thankfully recovered. They also talked to Dave Leone, who has developed a system for detecting the instant a person falls from a ship also included was a short clip of James Walker talking about these incidents and cruise line attorney Larry Kaye.

There were more interviews done for this show including one with me, that did not make the cut and I can only guess as to why, but I do feel that it is a pretty safe guess. I want to talk a little about some of the good things and the bad things that took place in this story.

First the good: First and foremost the good news is for Sarah Kirby who was one of the very few who are recovered after a fall like this. I am happy for her and her family. Second, I was pleased to see the successful test of the MOB system. Sadly, that about sums up the good parts.

Now for the disappointing: my “guess” as to why my interview was not used is because my brother was never found, and therefore it could not be spun into a win for the cruise line. With Sarah, although it is wonderful that she was saved, the industry is able to show a tragic event that ended with them saving her life. This makes a horrible story more tolerable to the viewers, where as someone lost at sea is more upsetting to viewers.

The test on the man overboard system was much more involved than what was shown, according to Mr. Leone. The episode showed reporter Reena Ninnan jumping from a yacht, and the alarm going off before she even hit the water. This is fantastic. They then show Cruise attorney Larry Kaye stating that the reason the industry does not use them is due to cost, and fear of repeated false signals. There are many problems with this ignorant statement. First is the fact that the test was more in-depth and they tried many ways to get the system to set off a false alarm, and at no time were they able to do so. Second is the cost. The system might be expensive. Honestly, I don’t know the cost. I do however know that if it would save even one life it is priceless. I also know that the U.S. Coast Guard spends millions in taxpayers money to search the ocean for victims. When I say millions, I mean PER VICTIM and so far that is six in the last month. With this system these millions would not be needed. The issue here is that the non tax paying cruise industry would have to foot this bill instead of the American people.

One other thing I wonder about is the statement from Disney that these systems are in use on their ships. I do not know if this is true or not but have never heard of it before this show. If it is true, I am very happy to hear it. Finally someone is doing the right thing, and I hope that it leads to the others following suit. Since it seems the law is not enough to make the industry comply maybe Disney will be powerful enough to get it done. The problem here is that if it is indeed true, why has nobody heard of it before now? If I was the first company in a competitive business to take actions to save lives and protect my clients, I would promote the fact. I have decided to reserve my judgement on this issue until I have the facts.

Now we move to Mr Kaye’s statement about “sail and sue”. Is he trying to say that Sarah Kirby went on that cruise, had some drinks and then jumped off the ship breaking bones and tearing an artery, risking her life with the knowledge that MOST people are never recovered, all in an elaborate plan to make some money of the industry? I would call that statement a joke if not for the fact that it was not funny, and it WAS incredibly offensive to myself and dozens of other victims I have spoken to.

Sadly this segment on 20/20 did little to help the cause that they flew me to New York  to try and further. It really did little to help anyone or accomplish anything. The sad part about it is that this had to be a decision that someone made. They had to look at the information and make the decision. Was that based on ABC being owned by Disney? To make matters even worse, the “comments” below the story are all talking about Sarah Kirby. All of them demeaning to her. Why? Because anyone who posts anything in favor of man overboard systems or Mrs. Kirby has the comment deleted. This even happened to comments made by ICV chairman Kendall Carver. To me this is the same negligence that the cruise industry is showing by refusing to take the legally required steps to save lives, and it is a disappointment to say the very least.
Here is the link to the show on ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/controversy-man-overboard-systems-21581889

Help us pass new laws

There is now a petition that we need you all to sign! We are doing all we can to increase the flow of information, not only to you, but to our government officials as well! Please sign and share the link with everyone you know.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pass-bi-partisan-bills-hr-2800-and-s-1340-cruise-vessel-passenger-safety-act/yRMf3XtY