US lawyers file suit over Costa Concordia

I think the Costa Concordia has had enough press coverage over the last few months or so and I'm sure the last thing anyone wants to read by this point is another story about a group of lawyers suing Carnival over the tragedy. However I came across this report last week and it seemed to me to be a little different to all the rest.


The US lawyers who are suing Carnival this time are doing so because they feel Carnival exerted undue pressure on the designers/builders of the Costa Concordia to create an un-safe ship.
Eaves, ( the US law firm representing about 150 passengers who were onboard the Costa Concordia that night), claim that the design of the Concordia was flawed because -

"it was top-heavy and had a propensity to roll".
"The sad tragedy is the race to build the biggest ship with the shallowest hulls and room for the most passengers. When will it stop?
"We decided we must file this complaint to stop a race which is destroying safety," said a spokesman for law the firm.
"The ship's shallow draught, the area below the waterline, made it unstable, so that it tilted quickly over and many lifeboats became useless."

What's interesting about this story is how may cruise ships these days follow the same design. What would happen to the cruise industry if large ships like this were suddenly declared un-safe by the courts? Would the cruise lines continue to operate them? Would they be able to knowing if anything happened they'd be at fault? Would people continue to book onboard them?

I'll be watching the outcome of this trial carefully and so should you!

Happy cruising