Cruise Ship Sinks

The Costa Concordia Cruise ship, owned by Genoa-based Costa Cruises, ran aground on a sand bank off the island of Giglio Island Italy on Friday, January 13, 2012.

There is a number of complex laws that apply to this disaster, for example international regulations require that each cruise company must have a safety plan, called a safety management system, that details responsibilities in the event of an emergency.

According to CNN News, "If the incident is contained, passengers might be allowed to resume their normal activities or be kept away from the damaged part of the ship until a return to port, or they might be required to abandon ship. If there is a fire on board, the captain would sound the general emergency alarm -- seven short blasts followed by one longer blast -- to direct crew members to fight the fire and direct passengers to their specified "muster" stations, where passengers are directed during safety drills to gather in event of emergency. The call to abandon is made by the captain. When the abandon ship signal is made, they have 30 minutes to get everyone off the ship, even though the general emergency could have started a day or hour before. It's not clear to Miami maritime personal injury attorney's why the captain didn't issue a mayday signal to call for outside help soon after the accident. One attorney commented "A captain needs to know your ship and what danger your ship is in," "Tilting and listing is a pretty good sign" of distress.

We can expect a large number of civil liability claims for both the injured and those who did not survive. If any family members of a person effected live in Colorado, it would be wise to work with an local personal injury law office who is able to co counsel with the right specialty law firm. There are lawyers who work regularly on boat accident cases and know the difficulties of filing suit against international companies in Federal Court. The foreign cruise line companies are often brought to justice on U.S. soil by way of long arm jurisdiction legal techniques, even though the injured parties live in Colorado."