Last night, ABC 20/20 aired a program about the controversy surrounding the cruise industry’s refusal to install automatic man overboard systems.
There is no question that the systems exist and can be installed. However, the cruise industry refuses to do so. (Disney says that its cruise ships have the technology). But it’s clear that Carnival and its brands (HAL, Princess for example) don’t.
The cruise industry has endless excuses why it has still not complied with the law enacted 4 years ago. It says that a bird or debris in the air can set the alarms off. The lawyer for the cruise lines in the 20/20 program says that the cruise lines have not “perfected” an automatic system yet. But there is no requirement for a “perfect” system. As matters exist now, the cruise lines have no system at all, in violation of the law.
The cruise lines’ approach is to attack the victims. The cruise defense lawyer attacks the dead and injured saying: “I call it ‘sail and sue.’ We deal with it all the time.” You can read my response here.
I will admit that many people I have spoken to don’t seem to care much about the fact that Carnival has no automatic system in place. Most blame the passenger for being intoxicated and are quick to insult her. That’s what Carnival and the other non-compliant cruise lines are counting on.
It’s a rather amazing phenomenon to see a non-tax paying foreign corporation which collects over $15 billion a year, from tax-paying U.S. citizens, and makes hundreds of millions of dollars pushing alcohol sales, blatantly ignore the law requiring overboard systems, and then shift 100% of the blame on to the passenger who got drunk on the Carnival booze.