Royal Caribbean

Family of Chloe Wiegand, Who Died Falling From Cruise Ship, Sues Royal Caribbean

“This is not some freak accident,” the family's lawyer said of the death of the 18-month-old. “This is something that was a preventable accident.”

The parents of an 18-month-old who fell to her death from an open window on a Royal Caribbean Cruise ship in July announced Wednesday that they are suing the cruise line, contending that the accident was the company’s fault.

Alan Wiegand and Kimberly Schultz Wiegand, of South Bend, Indiana, were on a Royal Caribbean Cruise ship in Puerto Rico when their daughter, Chloe, fell out of an open window from the ship's 11th story while she was in the care of her grandfather, Salvatore Anello.

Anello, who had placed Chloe near a window prior to her fall, has been charged with negligent homicide in her death. The grandfather told CBS News in November that he “thought there was glass” in the windowpane, adding that “if there was some kind of warning sign there, we wouldn't have ever been near it.”

The lawsuit says Chloe was with her mother in a children's water park area on the pool's 11th deck, and that when the mother had to go attend to another matter, Anello came to supervise the child.

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