Carnival Triumph Faces Passenger’s Legal Action
The past two years have included very public problems for the Carnival Cruise “Fun Ship” line, including the Costa Concordia shipwreck, a norovirus outbreak, and of course the most recent disaster with the Carnival Triumph.
As the Carnival Triumph incident recently played out on the national news, Attorney Charles Boyk predicted that the cruise line would be facing several issues once they got the ship back to port.
On Wednesday, the first steps toward legal action were taken by Matt and Melissa Crusan of Oklahoma, on behalf of other Carnival Triumph passengers. The couple told the U.S. District Court in the southern district of Florida, that Carnival was aware of the ship’s mechanical issues.
According to CNN.com, the lawsuit the couple filed, 1:13-cv-20592-KMW, states, “Carnival knew or should have known that the vessel Triumph was likely to experience mechanical and/or engine issues because or prior similar issues.”
CNN reported that the U.S. Coast Guard explained Monday, February 18th that the fire that caused the ship to be stranded at sea was a leak in a fuel-oil return line. The lead investigator with the Coast Guard, Teresa Hatfield, said that the investigation will last for months.
According to Hatfield, the oil return line that caused the Triumph’s troubles should be routinely inspected. She did not explain the last time this line had been inspected though, or any other details regarding it.
CNN also reported that passenger Cassie Terry explained that they were aboard a “floating toilet, a floating Petri dish.” Passengers reported that the food they were given was rotten as well. All of these factors put passengers at a serious health risk.
Attorney Charles Boyk commented on the situation, stating, “The Carnival Triumph passengers were under severe physical and emotional stress for five days. The cruise line failed to handle the incident appropriately while passengers were at risk for injury and disease aboard the ship.
This will hopefully serve as a wake-up call for the company, who has had numerous issues as of late.”
