The parents of Chloe Wiegand, the toddler whofell to her deathaboard a cruise ship over the summer, are suing Royal Caribbean.
Expected to hold a press conference on Wednesday to formally announce the legal action, Michael Winkleman, an attorney for the family, told theSouth Bend Tribunethat the lawsuit will be a wrongful death case, claiming that the cruise line failed to “have windows that are compliant with the well-established window fall prevention codes.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, a representative for Royal Caribbean Cruises wrote, “Our hearts go out to the family for their tragic loss. Mr. Salvatore Anello is currently being criminally prosecuted for negligent homicide in the case. We have no comment on the civil filing.”
It has been reported that Anello maintains his innocence and has a court appearance scheduled for Dec. 17.
During aninterviewonThe Dr. Oz Showlast week, Chloe’s parents,Alan and Kimberly Wiegand, spoke of their “difficult” time coping with the loss of their 1-year-old, and how they want to prevent other families from experiencing the same trauma in the future.
“Our main message is before you get on a cruise ship, you need to do your research and your homework,” Kimberly said during the episode. “I think there are risks that we didn’t know about, that people don’t know about, and you really need to do your research.”
Chloe Wiegand.Facebook
The mother added: “Since this has happened to our family, people across the country have reached out to me about their loved ones that’ve been hurt, and we just really think that people need to be educated and to have that knowledge, and we want to prevent this from ever happening to another family because it’s horrendous.”
Chloe died after she fell more than 10 stories onto a concrete dock while in the children’s play area of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean confirmed the incident in astatementto PEOPLE in July.
Winkleman also appeared onDr. Oz, when he told the daytime talk show host that he feels the tragedy could have been avoided if a warning was posted near the windows, or if other guidelines were followed, like installing screens and guards, or limiting how far the windows can open.
“For decades, literally since the ’90s, there have been rules and regulations in place that are designed for one reason, and that reason is to prevent kids from falling out of windows,” he said. “… Our preliminary investigation shows that none of those were followed.”
He added: “I really applaud the family, because their ultimate goal is they don’t want to see something like this happen to any other child ever again.”
In July, shortly after the incident, Winklemantold theTodayshowthat they would be moving forward with legal action against the cruise company.
“I do think there is going to be blame and significant blame on the cruise line, and I will do everything I can to hold them accountable, for what appears to me to be negligence,” Winkleman said at the time.
source: people.com
