Costa Concordia owners set to be sued over ship’s design
A US law firm is reportedly suing Carnival, the American owner of the Costa Concordia cruise liner shipwrecked off Italy this year, for allegedly leading its designers to sacrifice safety for profits.
AFP reports that law firm, Eaves, is suing for punitive damages in California over the design of the doomed ship and hopes that a win would see all similarly designed cruise ships declared unseaworthy.
Eaves, who said it is part of a collective of lawyers representing around 150 claimants from the Costa Concordia, said the ship’s design was fatally 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 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."
The 114,500-tonne ship ran aground on January 13, killing 32 of the 4,000 passengers on board.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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