A woman died after falling from her balcony and colliding with another passenger on a Virgin Voyages cruise ship.
The accident happened around 9:35 p.m. on Sunday, April 2, just after the Valiant Lady ship left Miami for Roatan, Honduras. Following the accident, the ship sailed back to port. It later resumed the voyage with minor changes to the original itinerary, making a stop in Cozumel, Mexico, before sailing to Bimini, Bahamas.
Virgin Voyages said in a statement that one guest died despite receiving prompt medical attention after falling from her balcony onto a lower deck. The victim who was hit was not seriously injured. The circumstances of the accident are being investigated.
Passengers rarely fall from the balcony of a cruise ship, especially into the water. Between 2009 and 2019, there were 126 minor injuries and 292 serious injuries to passengers or crew members aboard cruise ships, according to data provided for the Cruise Lines International Association by consulting firm GP Wild (International) Limited.
A Carnival cruise ship passenger described his 20-hour journey treading water in the Gulf of Mexico in 2022. On November 24, the night before Thanksgiving, James Michael Grimes, an Alabama resident, went missing after falling from the Carnival Valor cruise ship into the water. Grimes left the bar to use the restroom during the five-day journey from Cozumel to Mexico. He claimed that when he awoke in the ocean, he could no longer see the ship. Grimes was rescued by a US Coast Guard vessel 20 miles from the Mississippi River’s Southwest Pass. He had struggled to stay alive for 20 hours before being discovered.