Slip and fall type accidents on cruise ships are relatively commonplace. Slippery decks, rolling waves and crowded hallways can make it difficult to move around – especially for older passengers whose mobility is already declining or impaired.
Where a younger person may have avoided the slick, slippery spot in a restaurant after a recent mopping, an older passenger might not maintain their balance, fall and break a wrist.
Accidents like these happen often. Occasionally, the accident occurs due to the negligence of the crew. Perhaps they didn’t put up the ubiquitous yellow Wet Floor signs, cordon off the mopped area or warn passengers of the mop slicked floor.
If this negligence led to a fall, the fall led to a wrist fracture and that fracture required the passenger to incur doctor’s bills or longterm medical issues with the wrist…then it’s quite possible this passenger could have a successful injury claim against the cruise line.
Cruise lines like Royal Caribbean receive passenger injury complaints daily, whether filed directly by an injured passenger or by an attorney representing the passenger.
Quite often, the injuries are quite painful. The can be debilitating for an older passenger. The wrist break recovery time for an 80 year old man is much different than that of a 13 year old boy. The break may lead to other issues – an inability to take care of oneself or the the inability to take care of a spouse who may also be older.
Not only may a broken wrist complicate daily routines, but it may require the injured party to have to hire in home care for themselves or a spouse so they can bathe, prepare food or maintain their household. Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines hear about scenarios just like this every day…but do they respond?
What happens if older passengers need help?
After an accident, passengers often want to understand what their options are moving forward. They have many questions:
Is the cruise line responsible?
What is an injury claim?
Can I sue?
How do I do it?
Will they cruise line really cover my hospital bills, medicine, in-home care, therapy, etc.?
It’s the same reason why so many of our clients initially contact our personal injury law firm.
They’ve been hurt in a cruise ship accident and want to know “what to do next.” When someone contacts our firm, we’ll spend time with them to better understand the details of the injury so we can determine if they have a case – and ask a number of questions on the phone call.
Some of those questions our cruise ship lawyers will ask are:
How did the accident happen?
Where did it happen?
What happened after the accident?
Who was involved?
What is the extent of your injury?
What treatment have you had so far and what future medical needs do you have?
Do you have copies of medical records, bills or other costs related to your accident?
Accident – help is just a phone call away
The attorneys at Waks and Barnett, P.A. have been helping cruise ship passengers for more than 30 years. How can we help you?