News
January 27, 2012
By Nicole Winfield
Costa offers $14,460 per person for ruined cruise
ROME (AP) -- Costa Crociere SpA is offering uninjured
passengers euro11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost
baggage and psychological trauma after its cruise ship ran aground
and capsized off Tuscany when the captain deviated from his route.
Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator,
the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse passengers
the full costs of their cruise, travel expenses and any medical
expenses sustained after the grounding.
The agreement was announced Friday after negotiations
between Costa representatives and Italian consumer groups who say
they represent 3,206 cruise ship passengers from 61 countries who
suffered no physical harm when the Costa Concordia hit a reef on
Jan. 13.
The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on
the ship, the roughly 100 cases of people injured or the families
who lost loved ones.
Passengers are free to pursue legal action on their
own if they aren't satisfied with the deal.
Some consumer groups have already signed on as injured
parties in the criminal case against the Concordia's captain, Francesco
Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and
abandoning the ship before all passengers were evacuated. He is
under house arrest.
In addition, Codacons, one of Italy's best known consumer
groups, has engaged two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action
lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects
to get anywhere from euro125,000 ($164,000) to euro1 million ($1.3
million) per passenger.
But Roberto Corbella, who represented Costa in the
negotiations, said the deal offered Friday provides passengers with
quick, "generous," and certain restitution that consumer
groups estimate could amount to some euro14,000 per passenger including
the reimbursements.
"The big advantage that they have is an immediate
response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind
them," he told The Associated Press.
Angry passenger Herbert Greszuk, a 62-year-old German
who left behind everything he had with him, including his tuxedo,
camera, jewelry, and even his dentures, told the AP before the compensation
was announced that it was an issue of accountability.
"Something like this must not be allowed to happen
again. So many people died; it's simply inexcusable," he said.
The Concordia gashed its hull on reefs off the island
of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorized deviation from its
approved route to bring it closer to Giglio. Some 4,200 passengers
and crew were hastily evacuated after the Concordia ran aground
and capsized a few kilometers away near the port of Giglio.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered and another 16
remain unaccounted for and presumed dead. Search efforts for them
resumed Friday as salvage crews prepared to begin extracting some
500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil before it leaks.
fItaly's civil protection office on Friday released
a list of some of the other possibly toxic substances aboard the
cruise liner amid concerns of possible environmental pollution.
They include 50 liters of insecticide and 41 cubic meters of lubricants,
among other things.
But so far, even though there has been some film detected
in the waters around the ship, tests on the waters indicate nothing
outside the norm, according to Tuscany's regional environment agency.
"Toxic tests have all resulted negative,"
the agency said. "For now, there are no significant signs of
sea water pollution."
The crystal clear seas around Giglio are a haven for
scuba divers and form part of a marine sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises
and whales.
Passengers have said the evacuation was chaotic, with
crew members unprepared to deal with an emergency and constantly
downplaying the seriousness of the situation. Coast guard data shows
the captain only sounded the evacuation alarm an hour after the
initial collision, well after the Concordia had listed to the point
that many lifeboats couldn't be lowered.
Schettino has admitted he had taken the ship on "touristic
navigation" near Giglio but has said the rocks he hit weren't
charted on his nautical maps.
Codacons has called for a criminal investigation into
the not-infrequent practice of "tourist navigation" —
steering huge cruise ships close to shore in a publicity stunt to
give passengers a view of the sites.
The chief executive of Costa, Pier Luigi Foschi, told
an Italian parliamentary committee this week that "tourist
navigation" wasn't illegal, and was a "cruise product"
increasingly sought out by passengers and offered by cruise lines
to try to stay competitive.
Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. represents clients throughout
the state of Florida including the cities of Boca Raton, Boynton
Beach, Carol City, Cooper City, Coral Gables, Coral Springs, Davie,
Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hialeah, Hollywood,
Jupiter, Lake Worth, Miramar, Miami, Oakland Park, Palm Beach, Palm
Beach Gardens, Palm Springs, Pompano Beach, and Rivera Beach
Broward County • Miami-Dade County • Palm Beach
County
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