Tortola Tourist Board - Let Cruise Excursion Bus Story "Die Naturally"
BVI News and BVI Platinum News continue their excellent coverage of the tragic and deadly crash of the Princess Cruises' excursion bus in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI) with an article entitled "It could Have Been Worse."
PR Nightmare
The BVI Tourist Board is trying to manage the public relations nightmare of the death and multiple injuries of U.S. cruise tourists on a bus with no seat belts being driven by a bus driver with an arrest history and prior conviction record for reckless driving nicknamed "Crash Dummy."
The Director of the BVI tourist Board, Ms. Hadassah Ward (photograph below, left), is struggling with crisis management efforts following this debacle. Ms. Ward scheduled a press conference yesterday where she announced that "it could have been worse."
I'm not sure I understand exactly how it "could have been worse."
A young man died needlessly on a cruise excursion, purchased by his loving parents for his birthday, because of the obvious negligence of the excursion company and cruise line which saw fit to associate itself with a substandard tour company which hired a known reckless driver nicknamed "Crash Dummy" operating a bus not suited for mountainous terrain.
Ms. Ward should have said "this should have never happened."
Instead we see Ms. Ward and her "Tourist Board" worrying about the image of her island and fretting about the press and the blogs covering the tragic story.
Muzzle the Press?
Ms. Ward announced that "one of the Board’s role is to monitor the media . . . to ensure accurate information is being disseminated. Ms. Ward also said she would monitor the "posted pictures of the accident . . . because it will be there for the next 10 to 20 years . . . "
Mr Ward is quoted as saying: "everyone is reading the blogs and newspapers… so we don’t want the information to be misconstrued where people will be affected in terms of liability . . . we need to understand that the blogs are read internationally."
She also noted that "good attitude from the Tourist Board officials" quelled any videos and photographs from being circulated online by the 16 tourists who were involved in the accident.
Ms. Ward concluded her remarks by stating "I am a great believer in letting the story die naturally . . ."
This is the essence of tourist boards and cruise line PR people - they just want the story to go away.
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We reported in a prior blog that this is not the first cruise bus excursion to run off the road and injure cruise passengers in Tortola - "Brake Malfunction? Defense Lawyers for Princess Cruises and Bus Driver Disagree on Cause of Tortola Excursion Accident." Nothing was done after that disaster.
History is repeating itself.
Let's Be Happy & Forget about It
So we have the Tortola Tourist Board trying to puzzle the press and control the images of the tragedy for PR purposes.
And the island and cruise line people behind the scenes just want the story to die naturally . . .
And then what?
Another season of substandard buses, with no seat belts, with reckless drivers . . . and another round of unsuspecting cruise passengers taking their families on the next bus driven by a "Crash Dummy" . . .
Comments From Tortola:
Here are some of the comments to the BVI News story that the Tortola Tourist Board is concerned with:
An accident waiting to happen is no accident. Hiring a driver with driving infractions and one of which was reckless driving to operate your tour bus is irresponsible and negligent. The owner of the tour bus too, is guilty of negligence which contributed to this vehicular homicide. Just because these tourists were given a heap of hush money as incentives not to file a lawsuit (we hope) and to keep things quiet, doesn't mean that TB should be issuing insensitive words " It could have been worse" because frankly, it could not have been worse . .
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Could have been worse?? Oh it's just one life....I mean come on. You're talking about insurance and all that...I mean if we have people operating and transporting persons and they have no license to drive or no insurance to operate heir vehicles then we have a very serious flaw in the system! Don't give me that could have been worse story. With as much violations this guy should he even be driving much less responsible for transporting this many people? These are peoples lives we're talking about!
License or no license, hiring a driver with a record of driving infractions including reckless driving, whose nickname is Crash Dummy should be good reason to revoke his license to operate a tour bus. Lackadaisical, slackness, don't care with attitude are words to describe the way business is conducted in this place from top to bottom.
March 11, 2010 Update:
Two newspaper stories from Tortola today address the efforts of the Tourist Board to assist the parents of the deceased cruise passenger, Mr. Rumphrey. The BVI News has an article "BVITB Reports on its Efforts to Assist Family of Tourist Killed in Road Accident." The BVIU Beacon also reports on the Tourist Board's efforts to assist the affected passengers in an article "BVITB Aids Family of Man Killed in Wreck." Ms. Ward is quoted saying: "Yes, bad things do happen in paradise, but when they do happen, you have a support group.”
Credits:
Photograph of Ms. Ward BVI News
Photographs of bus BVI Platinum News
argument ignored the fact that the cruise line had already suspended the tour in question, the "Tropical Forest Hike and Beach" excursion, .jpg)
The Magistrate suspended Mr. Allen's license, pending the outcome of his trial regarding the death of cruise passenger Aaron Rumphrey who died in the crash. -1.jpg)
Four other people were injured. Some reports indicate that another crewmember and three British women passengers were injured. Other newspapers say that four passengers were injured. .jpg)
Mr. Maltzman is best known for his successful defense of Cunard Line and Fun Water Tours following the crash of an excursion truck in Tortola British Virgin Islands (BVI) in November 2005. The case is highlighted in an article appearing in the National Law Journal entitled ".jpg)
Mr. Maltzman is reportedly telling some of the passengers that the tour bus' air brakes were checked out by investigators and no problems were discovered. It is less than clear whether the investigators were retained by the police or the defense lawyers on behalf of the cruise line. 
Mr. Daniels appeared in Court yesterday in an effort to try and get his client out of jail, following his arrest two days ago. In an article entitled "
Mr. Rumphrey attended classes at the Cobblestone Arts Center in Farmington, New York. His teachers and friends there remember him as "just a sweet young man." .jpg)
, had anything to do with her passing. .jpg)
Multiple new sources are reporting that the FBI is investigating the death of a 32 year old woman from Brazoria County, Texas aboard the Carnival cruise ship Ecstasy. 
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for indigenous communities and promotes sustainable development in the Andes. They have set up the Nina Elizabeth Nilssen Fund which will provide resources for the Q'eros people, who were very special to Nina, and other indigenous communities to establish Vilcanota, the world's first spiritual national park, to forever protect their lands and traditions in the face of large-scale mining development and to share with visitors the serene and sacred beauty of the high Andes..jpg)
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believe is where the body was found. I totally blame the Star Clippers Cruise Line for this tragedy. The next day on St. Kitts, the ship once again anchored off an isolated and un protected beach, with nary a word of warning to the passengers . . .
In researching Ms. Nilssen's death, I ran across an interesting blog written by Cynthia Boal Janssens who is one the bloggers on the cruise website 
I think that this incident reinforces a fact of travel that we should never forget. That crime exists everywhere . . . 
The local newspaper carries the sensational headline: "Body Found On Gay Cruise Ship." .jpg)
of the ship's medical facilities. Are cruise ships equipped to handle medical emergencies which occur during Atlantis parties? Does Atlantis discuss the use of drugs and the foreseeable risk of a drug overdose with the cruise line to make certain that there are properly trained medical personnel to respond to emergencies?
bartender, who also worked aboard MSC's Musica (photo left). He is identified as either her husband or boyfriend.
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FBI agents who arrived on the cruise ship. 
published articles last week about Mr. Tore Myhra - described as an "English tourist" - who died November 1st at Jackson Memorial Hospital after sailing for a week on the Liberty of the Seas. I commented on the story - .jpg)
different water samples from the ship over the past few months as part of our routine water testing program, and all those tests have come back negative regarding the bacteria that can cause the illness. .jpg)
After a death like this, there should be literally over a thousand tests conducted to test every possible source of this disease. 
sustained heavy damage to the hull and began to take on water, requiring Captain Myhra to ground the ship to keep it from sinking. The passengers were taken from the beached cruise ship via tenders. .jpg)
The Crown charged Wilhelm of manslaughter of Ms. Brimble who died on the P&O cruise ship in September 2002 after being given the illegal drug GHB, also known as fantasy or liquid ecstasy. In addition to the manslaughter charges, the Crown charged Wilhem with the lesser charge of providing an illegal substance to Ms. Brimble.
The cruise ship's doctor and nurse reportedly attempted to resuscitate Mr. Yu before he was taken to a hospital in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where he was taken from life support.
Several years ago, I printed out two articles which I have kept in my home office to remind me of this sad case.
Ms. Hutchinson's article brings home the frightful specter of an insecure women running into a pack of wolves like this, whether the setting is a cruise ship or a neighborhood bar. What are the lessons to be learned from this terrible tale? Ms. Hutchinson again brings the point home reflecting on the question of how we are raising our own boys: 
Australian citizen and fellow passenger Mark Wilhelm is accused of the manslaughter death of Ms. Brimble after he allegedly gave her the drug Gamma Hydroxybutyrate ("GHB") during a cruise aboard the Pacific Sky. .jpg)
The jury is now left with the sole issue whether defendant Wilhelm committed a crime by supplying her with GHB, also known as the drug "fantasy." The coroner has already concluded that Ms. Brimble died after being given a toxic mix of alcohol and GHB..jpg)
Over the weekend, I was the first to report in the U. S. (on Twitter and in this blog) that another 
Dragan Losic (with goatee), one of "8 persons of interest" in Ms. Brimble's death, appeared in Court. Over the course of three hours of his testimony, he could not even remember meeting Dianne Brimble on the first night of the cruise, just hours before she died in his friends' cabin. 
A criminal trial begins this week in Australia in the case of cruise passenger Dianne Brimble, a passenger sailing with her children on P & O Cruises’ Pacific Sky in 2002. It has been seven years since Ms. Brimble’s ill fated cruise which ended with her death. A coroner determined the cause of her demise to be a date rape drug given to her by another passenger, Mark Wilhelm, who is now finally standing trial for her death..gif)
If proper blood and urine testing is not performed in a timely manner after the rape, the drugs will not be detected. Cruise ships are notorious for having ill equipped medical facilities and incompetent or indifferent staff. It is important for passengers to use the same safeguards you would use in a bar ashore:
When 40 year old Boston resident Merrian Carver "disappeared" from the cruise ship Mercury operated by Royal Caribbean’s subsidiary brand Celebrity Cruises, the cruise line tried its best to cover the incident up. It didn’t report Merrian missing to either the FBI or the Alaskan State Troopers, even though the cabin attendant reported her missing early in the cruise. Merrian’s Dad, insurance executive Ken Carver, began a serious investigation. Royal Caribbean responded by lying to Mr. Carver and disposing of evidence. Mr. Carver didn’t go away and the story went public. The 
But when their frustration forced them to the press for answers, the cruise industry’s response was quick and brutal. Michael Crye, representing the International Council of Cruise Lines ( the predecessor to today’s Cruise Line International Association - "CLIA") told an AP reporter investigating the story " . . . its difficult if someone chooses to do harm to themselves . . ."
The recent disappearance of Washington resident Amber Malkuch shows that little has changed. Amber was 45 when she sailed on the Holland America Line ("HAL") cruise ship Zaandam. On August 3, 2009, Amber disappeared. The usual protocol when a passenger disappears should be for the FBI or the state law enforcement authorities to board the vessel at the next port and to conduct an investigation. The period of time leading up to the cruise ship's arrival at the next port is critical because the cruise line controls the scene of the disappearance, the witnesses and all of the evidence. Before the authorities can conclude whether the "disappearance" resulted from an accident (due to the ship's negligence, or the passenger's carelessness or intoxication, or a combination of factors), foul play or suicide, they must first review the evidence and interview passengers and crew members..jpg)
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