NEW YORK POST – A “free-spirited” woman vacationing in Florida died when she got stuck in the window of her hotel room, authorities said.
Sydney Therriault, 22, of Beallsville, Maryland had been staying earlier this month at the Pelican RV Resort & Marina in Grassy Key, Florida, Fox Baltimore reported.
“It appeared she did not have a hotel key was attempting to make entry to her room via the window,” the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
But when she tried to enter the window, she became stuck and asphyxiated, authorities said.
Emergency responders arrived around 7:28 a.m. on March 18 and pronounced her dead …
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A year ago, infected cruise passengers foretold our future. Now, the courts are deciding who’s to blame.
By ANDREW BORYGA | MAR 14, 2021
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL – A year ago, before anyone knew how COVID-19 would obliterate our way of life, we got a taste by following the saga of thousands of cruise passengers stranded at sea.
As desperate ships full of these sick and dying Americans and foreign nationals circled the coasts of the U.S., debates raged about what to do. Eventually, the passengers were accepted like war-torn refugees.
They became some of the first positive COVID-19 cases in our nation, and the first to die. Now, the legal system is trying to decide whom to blame.
A wave of federal lawsuits filed by former passengers over the last year provides an account of how cruise lines were cryptic about admitting whether the virus was on board, how they dealt with passengers presenting early symptoms and how some gave out free drinks to keep the party going despite sick people filling the infirmary.
The suits also raise tough questions: How much did cruise lines know in the early days of a rapidly evolving pandemic? How much responsibility do the passengers shoulder for stepping on board in the first place?
Many of these debates are playing out in South Florida because some cruise lines force passengers, no matter where they are from, to file lawsuits in our federal court.
Thus far, a handful of cases against lines like Celebrity Cruises, Holland America and Princess Cruises have been dismissed or narrowed down by federal judges across the country.
Legal experts say cruise lines are protected by language tucked into tickets that strips passengers of rights and century-old laws that rule the open seas and ensure cargo more than top-dollar paying cruisers.
The unprecedented nature of a global pandemic also works in the cruise lines’ favor … Read more [subscription may be required].
