South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

The Coast Guard has ended its efforts to find a young man from Louisiana who fell overboard on a cruise ship, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported May 27. Bruce O’Krepki fell from the Carnival Fantasy 150 miles southwest of Tampa at around 9:45 on Sunday night, the article said. The Coast Guard had searched more than 5,000 miles of the Gulf of Mexico for him, but stopped their efforts two days after the accident, on Tuesday night.

O’Krepki was on a cruise celebrating his graduation from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond, Louisiana, with 30 classmates and family members, including his own parents. After leaving from New Orleans, the ship was headed for Key West. A soccer and track player, O’Krepki had planned to attend Louisiana State University, where an older brother is a student, on an academic scholarship.

The article doesn’t give enough details about the accident to judge how it could have happened. But as a Broward County cruise ship accident lawyer, I hope O’Krepki’s loved ones are doing everything they can to preserve evidence if they believe the cruise ship line was at fault. Cruise ships spend most of their time in deep waters, outside the jurisdiction of the state of Florida, and they typically have their passengers sign contracts that give them just one year after an accident to file any lawsuit (and restrict them to a court of the cruise company’s choice). That means passengers must move very quickly to preserve the evidence and their right to sue after an accident.

Fort Lauderdale cruise ship accident lawsuits are particularly complicated to pursue because normal personal injury laws don’t generally apply to them. Florida state law no longer applies when a ship is more than three miles off Florida’s coast. Depending on the location of the ship, the port it left from and its registered home port, federal maritime law and one or more foreign countries’ laws might apply instead. Sorting out the right laws, preserving victims’ right to sue and properly valuing a claim for a cruise ship accident can be difficult and time-consuming, which is another reason experts tell victims to contact a cruise ship attorney as soon as possible.

Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, represents victims of cruise ship injuries and their families in lawsuits over serious injuries and criminal assaults on ship. Our Miami cruise ship accident lawyers represent people from around the United States in Florida federal and state courts. We can help victims recover compensation for their injuries, pain, suffering and all of the financial costs of the accident. If you or a loved one was injured by the carelessness of a cruise ship company or employee, we can help. To learn more at a free consultation, please contact us online or call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100.