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Careless and poor judgement, Grandpa was likely not impaired from alcohol. As mentioned by others here + Grandpa bragging he did this before at Hockey Games. He was just being his own tormenting self, loves to hear others scream. No mal-intent intended, just his usual 'playful' (?) Self. Quite common behavior for some. (Tossing kids around). Playful (?), Not for all involved.
RCI has to deal with all types, tough business, and very hard on the many who witnessed this negligence, while destined for a good time. Life happens, there are consequences for each of our actions. Often to the innocent among us.
Just an FYI about the hockey games...he didn’t hold her up at the games , she as well as other fans banged on the glass or plexiglass whatever it was while standing to cheer on the team which is apparently customary at the games. It went down to the floor.
Just an FYI about the hockey games...he didn’t hold her up at the games , she as well as other fans banged on the glass or plexiglass whatever it was while standing to cheer on the team which is apparently customary at the games. It went down to the floor.
yea he could have just let her stand at his level and bang on the glass there.
It was never stated that it was a “playroom”. You must be new to the story.
No, I'm not new to the story - I have been following it since it began. I even posted on this very thread. As other posters have pointed out, the attorney had repeatedly emphasized that it was a children's play area where this tragedy occurred - there is video of the press conference with the attorney, Winkleman, on youtube where he is repeating this lie "children's play area" like a loop and now due to the existence of this video, we find it is a complete lie. He kept saying that the tragedy was preventable if the window was not opened, and how could they (Royal Caribbean) have been so careless to leave it open in a "children's play area" over and over.
After watching the side and the back video I'm going with intentional.
Why? Who knows. Maybe he just wanted his 15 min. of fame. Killers do unthinkable things that make no sense. If he had dropped her out of a window in the US he would be in jail. Now he is running around giving interviews and being famous.
I don't know the numbers but millions of kids have been on cruise ships over many, many years. None have been dropped out windows or over the edge of the railings. Poor Chloe probably wasn't going to survive that cruise. Grandpa had his shot and he took it. Leaning out the window and studying the situation is a dead giveaway. After the Michael Jackson incident most people know it is considered dangerous and unacceptable to dangle a baby out a window if they didn't know it before from common sense.
Puerto Rico would be negligent if they didn't prosecute him. I think their offer of a plea deal was too generous and likely a nod to tourism and Royal Carribean. It must be tough on the investigators to make such a compromise when they see a little girl being killed on video with what looks like intent. The prosecuters must have concluded it is hard to prove intent but Grandpa is caught in a big fat lie when he says he didn't know the window was open. You can't lean out a window and then claim you thought there was glass there.
And the parents? How do they stick up for him? If you saw someone do this to your child what would your reaction be?
The story by the family appears to be heavily made up and the "Kids are not supposed to die on cruise ships" can easily be countered with. "Kids are not supposed to be dangled out open windows". Do they really need a note posted stating this? The window is very high and no child was going to run up to it and just fall out. It took an adult hoisting her up and over the railing. You can see in the video how high he has to hoist her to get her over the railing. Pretty much has to hoist her over his head to clear it.
If you hold a child out an open window several stories up and drop them they will die. Chloe could have also died running through the bar area if an adult had stepped backwards and tripped over her and fell on her. There was alot of negligent parenting going on and it had nothing to do with the cruise ship.
This, again, was in the news lately. Now the parents are suing Royal Caribbean.
I have looked out these very same/type of windows before on several occasions. There is a tint to them that even from a distance, its pretty easy to tell if one is open or not. It might be a bit more difficult for someone that is color blind but still, an open window would be brighter and a lighter shade than a closed window. Then there are other senses. Near the water there is often a breeze, a slight difference in temperature near an open window compared to the sun coming through the glass of a closed window. There are smells and sounds that are more pronounced at an open window compared to a close one. Sight, sound, hearing, touch, smell ... they all come into play. Then there is the psychological knowledge and experience of ones surrounding. You know where you are. You realize you are at a considerable height. A responsible adult would take this into consideration where a child might not as in the case of Eric Clapton's son who went out a 50 story window not realizing the danger.
Pretty much any but the most obtuse adult would sense and understand the danger in this situation.
It is somewhat a natural tendency at these windows to want to lean forward over the railing for a "better" view. Many people just want to see the ground or water below. The want to see up and down the length of the ship. They want some perspective, so they lean out a bit, look down, look left and right, think 'wow!' to themselves and move on.
Hanging on to a child can be tricky business. Add that they do not necessarily understand the danger even being a few feet off the ground. I've held kids and dogs that just what to jump out of your arms and it can be a struggle to hang onto them. They don't understand that even falling 3 or 4 feet could hurt. Add that clothing can some times complicate the issue as it slides around the body making the job of holding on them even more of a challenge.
Put all of this together. An adult that exercises poor judgement, has a child in his arms, goes to look out the window, probably leans forward a bit, the child thinks its a grand adventure, wiggles or tries to jump out of his arms, the adult looses their grip, potentially complicated by loose clothing or slippery skin due to sweat or sun screen oils and possibly physical limitations of the adult.
Disaster.
Something along these lines is the most probable scenario.
No matter how many signs you put up or safety precautions you take or legislate (and there are probably a million of them that pertain to building and running a cruise ship), you can not keep everyone absolutely safe all the time, especially if they use poor judgement to begin with.
Does all this make the cruise line responsible? No doubt there are a few cases where negligence of the cruise line is a factor. I personally do not think this is one of them.
I totally agree and don’t think the cruise line is at fault especially when considering the height of the opening !
It would be like holding a child above a railing ( 42 inches high by code ) and then losing your grip, who’s fault is that? Holding a child against a glass panel or wall would not be advisable either. I obviously feel bad for the grandfather who’s life will never be the same as well as the rest of the family.
Am I surprised there’s a lawsuit, heck no since there are way too many lawyers on this earth and people willing to award someone else’s money!
"Last but not least if you're not going to do any of those things, which Royal Caribbean did not, then put a warning," Winkleman says. "If you put that right there on that railing, Sam is going to be alerted to it and we're not going to be talking about Chloe's death."
Puh-leeze, the old guy is too unaware of his surroundings to notice the freakin' window is OPEN, but he'll notice a sign ON the handrail? I don't think so. These people live in some sort of alternate reality.
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