Resort Injury Lawyer Blog

The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act signed into United States law in July 2010 may spread internationally. A proposal was made by the United States to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships. The proposal is based on the principals of the U.S. Act, which seeks to improve the reporting and handling of cruise ship crimes.

Apart from the United States flagged ships or foreign flagged ships operating in an area subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, there are currently no international guidelines that explicitly address these passenger safety and security concerns.

The IMO currently has 169 Member States and three Associate Members, so moving beyond the proposal phase may prove challenging. The U.S.-based organization International Cruise Victims (ICV) sponsored the original Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act and hopes that individual countries will move forward in the meantime, as the United States has done, to mandate this protection for their citizens.

The ICV is requesting that members and supporters ask for support from legislators around the world. "All of our members are victims or families of victims of the cruise industry, and we are committed to working as hard as we can to help with the approval of this important proposal", said Kendall Carver, Chairman of ICV.

International Cruise Victims organization is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing support to victims of crimes that occur on cruise ships, and to act as an advocate for legislative reform to protect passengers from crimes and increase the rights of victims of crimes that occur on cruise ships.

A woman has accused a Walt Disney World employee of raping her at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort after luring her there with a Friends and Family hotel rate and free theme-park passes, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

The man charged with sexual battery is a Disney reservations clerk, now on unpaid leave pending the outcome of a criminal investigation. The Orange County Sheriff's Office is investigating whether the man booked rooms for other visitors with his employee discount and provided them with free admission to Disney parks with his employee pass, to determine if there might be other victims.

The woman first spoke to the accused when she called Walt Disney World reservations to inquire about hotel reservations and theme-park tickets. During the conversation, she mentioned that she was unemployed and wanted to spend her income-tax refund check on a vacation for her children. The man began sending her text messages and offered to book her a room under his Friends and family discount, saying that he was raised by a single mother and understood what it was like to want things, reports the Sentinel.

Records state the woman "made a point to tell [the man] that she was not willing to trade sexual favors for what he was doing."

The man met the woman at her hotel, took her and her children on a free tour of the Magic Kingdom, and then returned to the hotel with them. Reports state that he did not respond to "her hints for him to go." She eventually fell asleep and awoke when she felt him sexually assaulting her.

When he finally left the room, he took $40, her debit card and the key to the hotel room.

© Tobias Wenov | Dreamstime.com

This year, Florida Legislature will review several bills filed regarding the state's $60 billion tourism industry:
• A bill designed to preempt any future efforts to regulate vacation homes as if they were hotels or motels
• Stiffer penalties for people who distribute fliers on hotel properties (The Safety Act of 2011)
• Easier access to liquor permits for restaurants
• Preserving public spending on tourism advertising

Vacation home regulation is a contentious issue and could determine the requirements and responsibilities of those property owners. Vacation rentals have become a popular alternative to hotel accommodations in Florida, with an estimated 20,000 vacation homes in Central Florida alone, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Some hotels have argued that these homes should be forced to comply with the same rules that hotels must follow.

The regulation could also affect the safety and security of people who rent vacation homes, calling into question the issue of premises liability. Last year, the state Legislature passed a law freeing vacation home owners from having to install fire-sprinkler systems, which conventional hotels are required to do.

Inadequate security and premises liability lawsuits can unfold from accidents and crimes occurring on resort and hotel premises. Premises liability may result from negligent security, insufficient lighting, inadequate security or safety equipment, or other causes. In negligent security cases, the plaintiff who has been injured brings an action against the owner or manager of the premises or business. Those who are in control or in a position to prevent the incident where the plaintiff was injured are the parties who are most often defendants.

Negligent security and safety measures - ranging from inadequate lighting to faulty locking mechanisms and inadequate key control - can give way to resort torts including resort injuries, criminal acts, and even violent attacks, particularly when tourists are unfamiliar or unaware of the risks in their vacation environment.

Adding to recently updated injury reports and a bus crash injuring five people last month, a Disney worker died Monday morning from massive head injuries he suffered on Sunday while working at the Disney's Animal Kingdom.

The 52-year-old man was repairing "The Little Dip" portion of the Primeval Whirl roller coaster when a co-worker called 911, according to a Sun Sentinel report, which published the call transcript released by Reedy Creek Fire District, Walt Disney World's municipal fire department:

"We need somebody right now," a co-worker told a 911 dispatcher. "One of our maintenance guys got hit by a moving vehicle...He got in the way of a moving vehicle."

The man was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he died Monday morning. Details of the accident were not immediately released and an investigation is underway by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. So far there have been no reports of a wrongful death lawsuit.

This is the second death associated with the Primeval Whirl. Another Disney employee was working on an elevated rider-loading platform in November 2007, when she was struck by one of the roller coaster vehicles, and died five days later. Disney was fined $21,000 for the accident and faulted five safety violations by federal investigators.

A suspected burglar in the Weston Hills Country Club community turned up dead in the canal of the Club's golf course Sunday. The Sun-Sentinel reported that the Hollywood, Florida suspect died from asphyxia after accidentally drowning, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office and Broward Medical Examiner.

A golfer noticed the body on Sunday and informed country club employees. It was not reported whether a weapon was found in the area, indicating that the suspect was armed.

During the burglary on March 7, one Hollywood man was arrested at the scene and two other men got away on foot. They are still at large, according to a Broward Sheriff's spokeswoman. She said it appeared that the deceased person found in the canal was attempting escape.

There were no details reported regarding premises security or barriers such as fencing around the golf course that might have prevented potentially armed robbers from entering the country club's property and endangering golfers and others at the club.

In January, an attempted robbery on the Deerfield Country Club golf course left a golfer dead.

Negligent premises security is a serious matter and is sometimes a factor in incidents that occur at resort and recreational facilities including hotels, amusement parks, nightclubs, casinos, etc. Negligent security and safety measures can give way to injuries, criminal acts and violent attacks. Key areas of potential premises liability include:
• Perimeter control, or limiting access to a property through fencing, landscaping or other means (CPTED or "crime prevention through environmental design");
• Lighting, which may have been inadequate at the start or poorly maintained after installation;
• Security equipment, including access control, locking mechanisms and closed circuit television;
• A lack of security staff, or security personnel, who may not have been properly trained, or who took inappropriate action in a violent crime situation.

The St. Lucie County Fair on Florida's east coast was lucky to have a capable helicopter pilot on board Saturday when the chopper's engine died. The helicopter was giving rides at the fair, when it crashed into the fairgrounds.

© Andre Adams | Dreamstime.com

The pilot said the fuel pressure light came on and the engine sputtered and died, according to the Sun-Sentinel. The pilot employed emergency landing procedures to 'auto-rotate' into a field using the blades to slow the helicopter. The crash landing broke the chopper's tail rotor into several pieces. Luckily, the pilot and two passengers from Vero Beach, Florida were not injured.

The cause of the engine failure is under investigation.

The Helicopter Association International reported that in 2008 there were 140 civil helicopter accidents in the U.S., 29 of them fatal.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Disney filed updated guest-injury reports with the state, revealing a death in December on the Prince Charming Regal Carousel in the Magic Kingdom. A 77-year-old woman with a pre-existing heat condition collapsed and died on the Carousel.

The Sentinel states that this was one of three incidents reported to state authorities for the fourth quarter of 2010 in accordance with an agreement in which "the parks avoid state ride-safety regulation in exchange for providing basic details about guest injuries."

The other resort injuries involved a 71-year-old woman who fell and broke a hip and shoulder following a ride on the Magic Kingdom Carousel, and a 76-year-old woman who fell on the moving loading platform to The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot.

Disney World reported 24 guest injuries for all of 2010, while Universal Orlando reported three and Wet 'n Wild reported two. SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa bay reported no injuries, despite bringing in approximately 10 million visitors per year, combined.

Amusement Park Injury Reporting

In 2001, The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the amusement park industry trade group, began producing its own injuries-per-ride-cycle figure for amusement rides (roller coasters, Ferris wheels, etc.) operated at fixed site locations. Their methodology is that IAAPA asks its members each year to report the number of riders they've processed through the turnstiles of their mechanical amusement rides, and the number of customers they know of who were treated by a doctor for injuries caused by any of those rides. They then come up with a number of patron rides taken each year, and an aggregated count of ride-related injuries parks reported knowing about.

This reporting system does not collect any information useful for analysis of accident patterns or development of prevention strategies. No information is collected that would identify the ride, the park, the age/size of patrons involved, the type of accident, or the injuries sustained.