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Is the Carnival Triumph a Floating Biohazard?

CBS News, Cruises, Safety & Security — on February 12, 2013 10:00 am
Is the Carnival Triumph a Floating Biohazard?

For the past two days, the Carnival Triumph has been stranded at sea following an engine fire. The good news is that all the passengers on board are safe and the ship is now being towed slowly toward Mobile, Alabama. The bad news is that the ship’s electricity is down, which means that there is no air conditioning and sweltering indoor temperatures. There is also no hot water and limited toilet function.

As tempers flare among the 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew, the conditions alone could present a floating biohazard. Peter joined the team at CBS This Morning to look at this danger at sea.

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  • michaelvee

    John Arthur Eaves, a Jackson, Miss.-based attorney isn’t surprised the same ship seized by the district court in Galveston, Texas, nearly a year ago based on Carnival Cruise Lines’ lack of compliance to standards regarding on-board safety and procedures aimed at preserving the lives of passengers and crew is now adrift in the Gulf of Mexico.
    “How much longer are we going to allow this to happen?,” asked Attorney John Arthur Eaves, Jr. “Once again, Carnival’s desire to increase profits at the risk of passenger safety has resulted in putting passengers at risk.”
    On request of the Law Offices of John Arthur Eaves, police seized Carnival Cruise Lines’ ship, the Carnival Triumph, in the port of Galveston, Texas, on March 29, 2012.

    “We seized this exact ship to make Americans aware the same inadequate standards that caused the sinking of the Costa Concordia are the same problems on every Carnival cruise vessel,” Eaves said. “How ironic is it the Triumph is the ship we seized to make this point?”
    Eaves maintains Carnival continues to put profits over passenger safety and “has set the safety standards for the international cruise industry.”
    “Carnival has had billion-dollar profits yet consistently cuts costs in hiring and training of its crew, in the discipline of its officers, in the design of its vessels and, as we know now, in the maintenance in its mechanical operations,” said Eaves. “It’s sad but true that when a company like Carnival is able to avoid responsibility because of outdated laws they always cut safety costs to increase their profits.
    “We call this greed, and the only way to remedy this is to close the loopholes in the law and hold the company accountable” says John Arthur Eaves, Jr. For this reason, Eaves Law Firm continues its actions aiming to change the rules on safety at sea for the entire cruise-industry in all the world. Hence the law firm is addressing all social, economical and industrial entities aiming to enact measures to avoid tragedies like the grounding of the Costa Concordia, a tragedy which could easily have been repeated with the Carnival Triumph.

  • MaryB

    The problems with Triumph were fixed before this cruise. The grounding of Concordia was (stupid) human error.

  • michaelvee

    …must have been perfectly fixed to cause a fire soon after… also, the Concordia-tragedy was NOT caused by human error but by gross negligence and lack of immediate, well organized evacuation!

  • michaelvee

    …must have been perfectly fixed to cause a fire soon after… also, the Concordia-tragedy was NOT caused by human error but by gross negligence and lack of immediate, well organized evacuation!