Is cruising dangerous?

So far the luxury cruise ship crash in Italy has claimed five lives. Do you think cruising is dangerous? Or is this just an isolated incident? Would it make you think twice about taking a cruise in the future?

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Hi Drew,  I would presume that anybody who would be put off cruising because of 5 deaths, would not be game to drive or walk down to the local shopping centre.  I can't remember the last cruising accident that claimed a life.  Statistically, there is a much higher risk of dying of a brown or a king brown snake in your own back yard.

It was an very bad error of the captains --how ever I am sure I would hate a cruise as to me it would be like being trapped in a club so I would never go on one--except to Tassie with my own cabin that was fine

Totally agree with you PlanB

Ditto for me too.

I would look upon this is an isolated, albeit horrendous, incident and it wouldn't put me off going on a cruise.  I have no comparitive figures, but I think the risks are are similar  when flying, or travelling distances by bus or train.  Any accidend involving moving great numbers of people will always seem horrendous, but I believe we take a bigger risk on a daily basis when driving a car.

 

 

It would have taken the breach of more than one, in fact several, cast iron management controls for the ship to come to harm. 

The captain is in a world of legal hurt that is for sure and whichever way he will be held responsible. 

It is interesting though that he has claimed the ship struck a hazard that wasn't identified on charts.  That causes me to wonder what modern soundings have been taken along the courses of these ships.  Where owners expect that ships take more 'scenic' routes to increase excitement for passengers, cruise ships could creep into potentially unsafe waters.  That and avoiding shifting sandbars/mud at the same time (if that occurred as well) could encourage a step the wrong way.  The captain and crew are still at fault, just noting that new hazards are continually being found in waters.  Unlike the bitumen road, the water surface rises and falls with tide.

It is astounding that the ship was so close in shore and I cannot believe that the owners were unaware of the practice. Not an excuse for the captain though, just demonstrating how apparently redundant controls can fail through disregard of one or more and it is cumulative human error, not Murphy, at fault

I have no personal knowledge of this disaster, but I can tell you 2 things.  The Captain is like God because he is totally responsible.  By the time the marine Inquiry is finished with him, he will wish that he was 1 of the 5 lost & he will be lucky to skipper a rowing boat for the balance of his life.  The 2nd thing is that I have twice been almost run down by cruise boats in shipping lanes.  I could not understand it until I had an opportunity to get onto the bridge of a couple of these ships & found out to my horror that the Radar was not even turned on let alone monitored.

His grandfather used to drive an Italian tank in the war and it had 2 forward gears and 18 reverse.

How did the Italians get into Australia? The first one swam across and the others ran across over the oil slick.

On ships like these they set the course in the GPS and break out the grog. One person looking out the bridge window could have avoided this mishap as there was a warning flashing light house right there.

No, he went into harm's way for ego it appears.

Seggie.  The captain said he slipped into a boat? 

Yeah right........I'm glad I wasn't the only one who picked that up Seggie. LOL LOL

True, he took the first boat, doubtless to survey the scene to ensure he had parked the biggie well.  Then he might as well go for some pasta or sightseeing given he was on shore at the dock already.

 

I was only saying that he wasn't following a pre-set GPS course, rather he was showing off steering too close to shore.  They drive cars that way too.

Yeah yeah sure he  "tripped and slipped" into a life boat--

Seggie again. Having experience with my family of an accident in a small boat which was sinking and although we can all swim, we were too far from shore. Luckily we were rescued but I cannot imagine the terror of those poor people.  Those who lost loved ones would probably like to be judge at the captain's trial.

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