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Falling off a cruise ship not an easy job
Just how hard is it for passengers to accidentally fall overboard? Answer: almost impossible.
“It is so hard to fall overboard that when someone does go over the side, it’s either because, sadly, it’s a suicide attempt or it’s because they’re being incredibly foolish,” Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com told the AP.
Several incidents have been reported recently. A 35-year-old man, for example, went over a Carnival Glory ship off Florida’s coast this year and was rescued eight hours later. He said alcohol was involved.
Also this year, a 22-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman went overboard the Grand Princess, and were found four hours later 150 miles off Galveston, Texas. Neither was seriously injured, and they asked the cruise line to keep their names and circumstances private.
“I suspect that drink is usually involved in these kinds of occurrences,” said Douglas Ward, author of the “Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships.”
“You never hear of a child falling off a balcony. That’s because the balcony dividers are quite high. Many of these incidents involve the excessive use of alcohol,” added Douglas Stallings, who writes cruise ship guidebooks for Fodor’s.
According to CLIA, 12 million people a year take cruises, and “in 2006, cruise lines provided Congress with data that showed that less than one per 1 million cruise passengers went missing over a three-year period.”
Cruise ship operators have a voluntary new agreement with the FBI and the Coast Guard to improve and standardize crime reporting.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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