The family of Chloe Wiegand, a child who fatally dived 50 meters to the death of an 11th-floor window on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas cruise ship, is trying to sanction the cruise company.
The family alleges “deterioration” of the video of the incident, requested by the plaintiffs and the United States Coast Guard.
A series of motions tabled this week claim that Royal Caribbean “knowingly and intentionally destroyed critical CCTV images of the time leading up to the incident”, which was “fatal” to its defense and would have exonerated Chloe’s devastated grandfather, the resident of Indiana Salvatore Anello.
The suit states that the “clear intention of the cruise company to deprive complainants of this critical information” justifies “the imposition of the most severe sanctions, including entry into judgment in absentia against Royal Caribbean”.
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Filming aboard the incident shows Anello alone on deck with Chloe, who takes him towards the glass walls of the ships. Anello is then seen lifting the child and sitting him on a wooden railing before he suddenly falls forward and disappears from view after trying to hit the glass.
“All I know is that I was trying to reach the glass and I know that we leaned over to try to make it reach the glass, at which point it slipped,” Anello told CBS News in an interview. “The fact that Chloe is gone is the worst ever, I’m like, you know? There is nothing worse that they can do to me than what has already happened. “
Anello, 51, pleaded guilty to murder for criminal negligence in October in connection with Chloe’s death and was sentenced to three years probation on Monday by a judge in San Juan.
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The family argues in the new lawsuit that the incident was preventable due to the fact that Royal Caribbean knew that pool deck windows were a “fall hazard for young children”, that passengers were “sitting, standing and climbing, above and above the bars, “that the parents” put the children in the bars and next to the open windows “and that, even without being placed by the adults,” the children could still access the windows by climbing the furniture placed very close to the grids “.
“All of this was known because the Royal Caribbean Guest Conduct Policy and crew members alerted passengers to these dangers, and there have been several incidents involving these dangerous circumstances, including an almost child fall incident just two years before death de Chloe “, states the document. “However, Royal Caribbean chose to ignore previous incidents and known risks and, as a result, this tragedy occurred. After the tragedy, Royal Caribbean’s strategy became evident.”
Among the evidence included in the new records is a statement by former boat safety chief Elton Koopman, who said he had “personally witnessed repeated falls risk incidents involving the windows of the pool deck”.
Koopman noted that “he attended several safety meetings where such risks of falling were discussed, and he contributed to the effort to rectify the danger by keeping the windows closed and alerting passengers.”
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According to the lawsuit, both the Wiegand family and the Coast Guard requested closed-circuit television footage about the time of the incident, in order to determine who opened the windows and why, and whether it was a crew member they should have been aware of Koopman’s warnings.
However, the lawsuit claims that Captain Frank Martinsen of Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas “ignored the Coast Guard’s question about whether there were CCTV showing who opened the window,” as well as his “request to provide them with CCTV images of the windows being opened. “
The lawsuit adds that Freedom of the Seas has at least one camera that would have clearly shown who opened and closed the windows, but that Royal Caribbean “just didn’t want that information to surface.”
“Instead, Royal Caribbean reviewed the requested footage, determined unilaterally that it was not relevant, and retained only the 30 minutes of footage prior to the incident from the two cameras that captured the incident,” continues the filing. “After that, Royal Caribbean consciously and intentionally destroyed the rest of the CCTV footage.”
The suit also claims that Royal Caribbean admitted that it had received letters requesting footage from CCTV, but that it offers “no reasonable explanation” for the failure to preserve the footage.
“It is evident that this critical evidence was destroyed in bad faith. The CCTV was destroyed because it was fatal to the defense of Royal Caribbean and would have exonerated Mr. Anello ”, continues the process. “The video probably shows that a crew member opened the window and therefore created the same condition that led to Chloe’s death. This is not a narrative that Royal Caribbean would allow. Only the harshest sanctions can remedy the extreme prejudice suffered by the Wiegands. . “
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The Wiegand family lawyer Michael Winkleman said in a statement that they were “pleased that the criminal case has ended and resulted in no prison terms and no admission of facts for Chloe’s grandfather” and that there was “no single evidence. to support the argument that Salvatore Anello was aware that the window was open. “
“Instead, the evidence is clear that Mr. Anello made an honest mistake, but because of Royal Caribbean’s failure to take any measures to protect its younger passengers, this has turned into a fatal tragedy,” said Winkleman .
A Royal Caribbean spokesman did not immediately respond to FOX News’s request for comment.
The trial of the case is scheduled to begin on April 26.