The family of the 18-month-old girl who fell 150 feet to her death on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship shared a photo of the open window that she fell through. A lawyer said the family is looking to hold the cruise operator responsible.
The photos were shot by Chloe Wiegand’s father, who is a police officer in South Bend, Indiana.
“We’ve all had that experience where someone walks into a glass door thinking it’s not there. This is the inverse of that,” Michael Winkleman, a family lawyer, said on July 9.
Reports said that Chloe was with her grandfather, Salvatore Anello. Winkleman said that he placed her on railing without knowing there was no glass in the room, which is a kids’ pool known as the “H20 Zone.”
“The grandfather is with Chloe, they’re playing and there’s this wall of all windows, it’s all glass windows,” he added.
He added: “Chloe used to love to bang on the glass at her brother’s ice hockey games, so her grandfather takes her over to the windows, he thinks it’s all glass. There’s a wood railing along there, he puts her on that thinking she’s going to bang on the glass and it’s going to be great, and the next thing he knows, she’s gone.”
Winkleman said that the family is now aiming to hold Royal Caribbean responsible.
Speaking about the open window, “Why would you have that kind of danger without any sign without any warning without any notice?” Winkleman asked.
“I do think there is going to be blame and significant blame on the cruise line,” he added. “I will do everything I can to hold them accountable for what appears to me to be negligence,” the lawyer said.