What was supposed to be an experience of a life time hot air balloon ride turned into a tragic event as two balloons from the most well-known, experienced hot air balloon company in Cappadocia, Turkey collided causing a fatality and other serious injuries.

 

Ten holiday makers had only just began their sun rise trip over the “fairy chimneys” in when the balloon collided with another. Daily Telegraph reported that “A local balloon pilot said that he believed the cause of the accident was that one balloon flew above another and its basket ripped open the envelope”. The balloon then dropped around 150 feet until it hit the ground, injuring all of its passengers and causing one fatality. Eight of the ten tourists were treated in a local hospital and another who was seriously injured was transferred to Kayseri University Hospital. Kevin Beurle, a 53 year old physicist, tragically died after the accident. The regional governor, Suat Ulusoy said, “We are still unsure as to the cause of the accident and whether Mr Beurle died on impact with the ground or jumped from the balloon in panic”.

 

Kevin Burle was on a package holiday with Explore Worldwide named “Hidden Trail of Cappadocia” which was scheduled to last nine days. He was accompanied by a friend, Juliet Boas, who was also injured in the ballooning accident. Kevin was a leading space scientist who worked at Queen Mary University, London. He had helped design software and equipment for the Cassini space mission to Saturn. In his spare time he was a scuba diving instructor and his interests were mountaineering, skiing and unicycling.

 

The balloon company was described by an employee of another company as “highly professional” and weather conditions were said to be “perfect” for the balloon ride, it therefore seems as though the crash was just an unfortunate freak accident, but highlights the dangers of balloon rides.

 

Only a month earlier there was another hot air balloon crash in Luxor, Egypt where the balloon flew into a mobile phone mast injuring the tourists inside the basket as it hit the ground. Two British tourists were hurt in the accident.

 

Linda Lea, 63, fractured her spine as well as breaking a collarbone, three ribs and her tibia and fibula bones in her shin.

 

Mrs Lea’s injuries were however not the end of her horrific ordeal. After the basket reached the ground she was left waiting, injured on the ground, for somebody to help her for nearly one hour. Then when she was admitted to hospital, Egyptian doctors failed to recognise that Mrs Lea had fractured her spine and broken bones in her rib for days. In addition, they failed to dress the wound on her leg meaning that when she took the decision to transfer to a British hospital, British doctors could not put a metal plate in her leg to help the broken bones.

 

Mrs Lea’s daughter said, “I’m amazed [Mrs Lea] got away… not lightly, but as she did. I was absolutely horrified when I saw the care she’d been receiving.”

A woman has lost her High Court battle for compensation after she was left unable to work following a holiday accident. Zoe Jay, aged 30, was holidaying in the Caribbean when she was crushed by a falling catamaran mast, leaving her with back injuries. Since then, Ms Jay has not been able to work, and finds it difficult to look after her young children.

 

Ms Jay suffered shock, and underwent 12 hours of surgery for her injuries; she still suffers from back pain. However, the Bristol High Court judge ruled in 2006 that Thomson, the holiday company Ms Jay had taken to court, were not responsible for the falling mast.

 

 

 

The 80ft mast snapped, falling onto the deck and trapping Ms Jay, when a change of weather put the mast under strain. Despite the claim that Thomson should have carried out more stringent safety checks, the judge said that the accident was caused by a manufacturing defect in the mast. The court ruled that Thomson could not have detected the fault in their routine safety checks, and no compensation was awarded to Ms Jay.

In May last year a long awaited dream holiday turned into everyone’s worst nightmare as a simple coach journey ended in tragedy.

 

The coach was carrying 40 European and North American holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sham el-Sheik to the Egyptian capital of Cairo when the coach accident happened on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, 70 miles south of Suez.

 

The coach left the road, hitting a concrete barrier before rolling and bursting into flames. The fire gutted the vehicle causing many of the passengers to suffer from severe burns. Nine people were killed in the coach crash and almost 30 others were injured.

 

The holidaymakers, from Canada, Italy Russia, the Ukraine and Britain, suffered from various injuries including burns and broken bones. One woman was even reported to have had her hand severed in the tragedy. Two British people were known to be among the injured: Philip Palmer, 43 and his wife Sandra, 49. While Philip was lucky to escape with just cuts and bruises, his wife suffered a broken finger and a suspected broken rib.

 

The coach accident occurred just a month after another fatal coach crash in Ecuador where four young British women were killed along with their British, female tour guide as they were enjoying a gap year adventure.

 

Both Egypt and Ecuador are known for their dangerous roads where accidents are frequent.

 

These tragedies are clearly, but unfortunately, not stand alone incidents or confined to foreign countries as just two months later, in August 2008; a coach was in a fatal accident near Alton Towers.

 

The coach was carrying 71 passengers from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and South Africa, on a day trip to the theme park Alton Towers when the coach crash occurred. There had recently been a torrential downpour making the already difficult road, treacherous. The coach was on a narrow, steep stretch of road when it failed to make the tight bend and instead collided with two cars in a driveway before smashing through a wall and falling on its side in a garden.

 

A 26 year old Polish man was pronounced dead at the scene while 3 others were said to be in a critical condition. The driver, who was from Lincolnshire, was also said to be seriously injured while 21 of the other passengers were taken to local hospitals, six had to be immobilised with spinal boards and neck collars and there were 44 ‘walking wounded’. Two air ambulances, 10 land ambulances, 5 rapid response vehicles and five fire engines were at the scene dealing with the casualties.

 

The staff canteen at Alton Towers was turned into a refuge for the wounded as they awaited help and treatment. Interpreters were also required when police realised that the victims, most of them farm workers, spoke little English making it difficult to establish how many people were on board the coach when the accident happened. However by nightfall all the passengers were accounted for.

 

Bradley Ford, 20, was the first person to arrive on the scene of the coach accident and, having just passed his St John’s Ambulance course, began administering first aid. His 12 year old brother, Lyndon, also helped comfort the victims as they awaited help. Their mother Ann said the accident scene was “like something out of a disaster film with people screaming everywhere…I am very proud of Bradley he really helped.”

 

Margaret Grice, 59, called 999 after about 15 passengers knocked on her door for aid. Margaret, who runs a milk delivery service, said she “heard this almighty rumble. The next thing I knew there were people banging furiously on the front door. When I opened it there were ten to fifteen of them with blood pouring from wounds to their heads, arms and bodies. It was a shocking sight I called 999 and fetched blankets for them. I just did what I could. The only word they could say in English was ‘accident’. They just kept repeating it over and over again. They were in a terrible state – extremely shaken up.”

 

Reginald Shaw, 82, who lives just 200 yards from the coach crash scene, is the former chairman of Alton Parish Council and he said “we have been campaigning for 25years for relief road to Alton Towers. That is a very winding, niggly stretch of road and there are sometimes 200 coaches a day coming along it. But our pleas have been deferred by the Towers, because they thought a new road would be too expensive, or be a problem. Now they’ve got a really serious problem.

 

Martin Bredda, another resident added that it was an “accident waiting to happen…It’s an extremely dangerous road. It’s a narrow country road. It’s mayhem, absolute mayhem. We had a torrential downpour of rain just before it happened.”

 

The passengers in a coach accident are innocent victims and are therefore able to make a claim for compensation for any injury they have suffered as a result of an incident. If you have been injured in any coach crash you need to seek advice from a specialist personal injury solicitor.

 

Macks Solicitors is an independent law firm with specialist solicitors who are happy to discuss making a claim for compensation with passengers who have been injured in coach accidents.

 

Our clients benefit from No Win No Fee terms which means, win or lose, they have nothing to pay. Furthermore, as a client of Macks Solicitors you keep 100% of any compensation awarded.

 

We never take referrals from claims companies or work for insurers so our clients know that we are working in their best interests alone.

Almost 3 years ago a tragic accident occurred in which two children died and two adults were seriously injured. In October 2006 Neil Shepherd, 38, had taken his partner Ruth Beatson, 28, and his two children Christianne and Robert Shepherd, on holiday to Corfu.

 

Over the half term break the family had been staying at the four-star Corcyra beach hotel in Gouvia, Corfu. Sadly what should have been a relaxing and refreshing break turned out to be a fatal trip.

 

On 26th October 2006 a cleaner discovered the bodies of the two children and the two comatose adults in their hotel room at around 11:30am. The four victims were taken to Corfu General Hospital where tests were carried out on the children’s bodies to determine a cause of death. Meanwhile Mr Shepherd and Miss Beatson were receiving emergency medical care to try and stabilise their condition and hopefully awaken them from their comas. Test results showed that Christianne, 7, and Robert, 6, had probably died 7 ½ hours before they were found and that there were very high levels of Carbon monoxide in their blood. An “investigation by an independent gas engineer concluded that a trip switch in the boiler had short circuited” and was probably the source of the carbon monoxide leak.

 

The children’s mother, Sharon Wood, 35, was at their home in Horbury, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, at the time of the tragedy. Mrs Wood, a dance teacher, had remarried that summer to Paul Wood and while the children had been away she had redecorated their bedroom as a surprise for them.

 

Fortunately both Miss Beatson, a teacher and Mr Shepherd, a garage manager, made a full recovery from a near fatal poisoning. The bodies of “Christi” and “Bobby” were flown back to the UK and the two couples, who live only a few streets apart, demonstrated a united front in their grief as both men acted as pall bearers.

 

Now there is little more the families can do other than grieve for their “gorgeous” family and wait for justice to be done to their memories. After the tragedy occurred charges were brought against 12 defendants including 2 British Thomas Cook representatives. Richard Carson, 27 and Nicola Gibson, 25, face charges of manslaughter by negligence and causing bodily harm by negligence. Mr Carson is still employed by Thomas Cook as an overseas representative but Ms Gibson has returned to the UK and no longer works for the company. A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: “We are confident that our colleagues acted properly and should not be blamed in any way. We continue to give them our full support and believe they will be vindicated by the court.” Thomas Cook also says that the property complied with the guidelines issued by the Federation of Tour Operators.

 

However the defendants were due to be tried on 24th June 2009, but the trial has now been delayed by 6 months. The family is extremely upset and described the setback as “extremely disrespectful” and said that “We wish for the process to come to an end, doing justice to our children’s memories so we can then try to rebuild our lives.” The trial will now be held in February of next year. It has been postponed at the request of three of the defendants, including one of the British defendants. The reason the trial has been postponed is because the lawyer representing one of the defendants has been summoned to another court at short notice.

Carl Riley, 46, was enjoying a two week holiday when he was hit by a deadly bout of food poisoning on holiday almost five years ago.

 

Mr Riley was staying at the Concorde El Salam hotel in Sham El Sheik on the southern tip of the Sinai peninsular in Egypt with his then, long-term, girlfriend.

 

The couple had decided to attend a beach barbeque that was organised by staff from the hotel. However he ate a burger that was “riddled” with E.coli0157 bug, shortly after which Mr Riley was “wracked” with severe stomach pains and diarrhoea. It was at this point, 20th November 2004, that the “holiday of a lifetime” turned into an “absolute nightmare” and ruined Mr Riley’s life and, Mr Riley believes, the relationship with his long term girlfriend.

 

Mr Riley described his food poisoning in detail, saying: “I was really, really ill for a couple of days. But it didn’t clear up. We went to the Valley of the Kings and it was a total disaster. It was horrific. It was really bad for weeks and weeks.” By the end of the two week holiday Mr Riley had lost a stone in weight.

 

By January of 2005, two months after the holiday, Mr Riley suffered a severe nosebleed due to dangerously high blood pressure. By February he was at the end-stage of kidney failure having to spend three weeks in a hospital in Newcastle for blood transfusions.

 

Mr Riley, from Bigrigg near Cleator Moor, was forced to give up his job at Sellafield due to the severe stomach cramps and kidney failure that he suffered. He also had to give up his favourite hobbies of cycling and fell walking and needs dialysis three times a week.

 

First Choice, the travel company through whom Mr Riley booked his two week package holiday, admitted liability and the negligence claim was settled outside of court. It took a two year legal battle but Mr Riley was finally awarded £750,000 in compensation for the food poisoning incident. This included loss of earnings, loss of future earnings, loss of pension, the cost of travelling for dialysis and any help he will need to maintain his home as well as compensation for his pain and suffering. Mr Riley said “the money will help ease the financial burden, but what happened to me destroyed my life.”

 

Eventually doctors discovered that the E.coli infection had left Mr Riley with a rare blood disorder called Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome. His life expectancy has been reduced and he will require a life time of dialysis or a kidney and liver transplant which is an extremely high risk procedure.

 

Mr Riley said that he “was medically retired in March last year and [I] have to go to Carlisle for dialysis three times a week. It’s not a very pleasant experience. You have to spend four hours every other day hooked up to a machine and it involves a huge needle. My medical state means I suffer from fatigue all the time. You feel really, really weak. It’s like having flu, but you have good days and bad days. I used to enjoy fell walking, cycling and stuff like that. After it happened I became angry and depressed because my quality of life was reduced. At the end of the day it wasn’t like I just got ill. This happened because somebody didn’t do something right like wash their hands and they contaminate the food I ate. I went on holiday and it ended up being an absolute nightmare. When First Choice accepted liability I wanted to settle this case as soon as possible, but they changed their lawyers and fought on for another two years.”

 

First Choice said that hygiene standards at the hotel were constantly monitored and an independent audit had taken place since the incident and the hygiene levels were rated very highly. A spokesman for First Choice said “we would like to reassure our customers that their health and safety is of paramount importance…This hotel is rated very highly by our customers and continues to be a popular hotel. We are very confident that guests due to travel there in the future will experience the excellent levels of quality of and standards they expect from a First Choice property.”

 

If you have been made ill with food poisoning on holiday you may be able to make a claim for compensation. It is vital that you go to an experienced personal injury solicitor for advice as soon as you are able to as there are strict time limits involved.

 

Macks Solicitors are a specialist law firm with experienced solicitors who are happy to provide personal injury compensation advice free and without obligation.

Swimming pools are, for many people, a must when they’re searching for their ultimate holiday destination. They can be totally idyllic and lounging around a pool in the sun with a good book and good company has to be most people’s idea of a dream holiday. However, swimming pools, or in fact any body of water, can be lethal especially with young children. Youngsters seem magnetically attracted to water and as so many children are curious with no sense of fear, the lure of a swimming pool is strong.

 

Unfortunately it seems that however closely you watch your children they will at some point elude your grasp and in those fatal moments anything could happen. Every parent must have lost track of their child for a few moments and usually the outcome is happy relief as the child is found playing in the next room or has just wandered over to another friendly family. However, in a sadly not-so-small number of cases, the outcome is every parent’s worst nightmare. Figures show that in 2008 there were 650 swimming pool accidents in the European Union every single day.

 

Last July a family had gone on what they hoped would be a relaxing and enjoyable summer holiday to a resort in Turkey. It is now a holiday they will never forget and one they will wish had never happened because of its tragic outcome. Lucy Cardwell was playing by the holiday pool in the resort of Dylan when she slipped and fell into the pool, hitting her head.

 

The two-year-old’s mother, Sophie, dived in to rescue her daughter as soon as she realised what had happened. Emergency doctors arrived and gave her artificial respiration before taking her to hospital. Lucy, who was from Whitley Bay in North Tyneside, was taken to four different hospitals and was put in intensive care but she died 3days later.

 

The tragedy occurred just a year after Lucy’s 15-year-old uncle, Daniel, died when he was swimming in a lake at Marden Quarry in Whitley Bay after he had been drinking with his friends in March 2007.

 

In the same month a similar accident occurred to Roisin Mairaid Fisher. The three-year-old was on the fifth day of her holiday with her family near the village of Competa in Spain. The accident followed an enjoyable family barbeque; Mr Fisher had gone inside to wash up while his wife sat outside with Roisin and their baby.

 

Mr Fisher, 43, a joiner from Eccles in Salford, said that Roisin “could not swim but always had water wings on. She would never be on her own. I cannot piece together what happened.” He added that he “went in to do the pots. Karen was outside with the baby. Roisin was sat on the patio and then that was it. That’s it. It all happened very quickly. It just seemed so tranquil, so quiet considering we have teenagers. Then I just went outside and that is when I found her in the pool under the water. I tried to resuscitate her. There was no noise. It was very quiet.”

 

Mr Fisher dived in once he saw his daughter in the pool. He attempted to resuscitate her but then, after calling an ambulance, he put her in the car and drove down a dirt track to meet the ambulance at the main road. However they were unable to save her and she was later pronounced dead.

 

After Detective Sergeant Alison Whittaker from Greater Manchester Police liaised with Spanish authorities an investigation concluded that there were no suspicious circumstance and a verdict of accidental death by drowning was recorded.

 

Alan Walsh, the deputy coroner for Bolton, described it as a “very tragic accident” adding that “you are clearly a very close family and a caring family. I am sure that you look after the children and the children look after each other. Sadly, it only takes a second for a child to go their own way and it appears to me that this is what happened. From the moment Roisin went towards the water, what happened then is not possible to say. She could have slipped or she could have fallen but there was no noise. I have great sympathy with you and sadness. It is unimaginable to lose a child, especially in these circumstances.”

 

The couple have six other children are understandably grieved at their loss. Mrs Fisher described Roisin as “amazing. We were so close and I miss her so much. We went to the villa because we thought that it would be safe. We will never go on a pool holiday again. With pools there should always be a warning to parents. Things can change in the blink of an eye.”

A British man, who has suffered prolonged illness after eating poor-standard food on his honeymoon five years ago, has finally been awarded compensation for his “hellish” ordeal.

 

Julian Hurley and his then new wife Jayne used First Choice Holidays to book a package holiday to Venezuela in August 2004, where they stayed at the Costa Caribe Beach Hotel in Margarita, an island off the country’s north coast. There for two weeks, the couple became ill with food poisoning eight days into their romantic break. According to Mr Hurley, who is now 50 years old, “birds were allowed to fly in and out of the restaurant and food in the buffet area was left uncovered for long periods. The food was not heated properly and often looked like it had been prepared for earlier meals”. As it was a package holiday, the couple had not taken much money with them and so were left little choice but to eat what the hotel offered them.

 

Despite both husband and wife becoming ill, Mrs Hurley recovered after a few days whilst Julian remained in huge discomfort and pain for the rest of the holiday. Confined almost entirely to the hotel room, Mr Hurley received very little medical attention or treatment, eventually accepting a prescription given to him over the phone by a doctor who had not even examined him.

 

However, as Mr Hurley explains: “I was in such pain I was ready to accept any help and couldn’t think about the risks.” As soon as the couple were back in the UK, Mr Hurley visited his GP who, having run some tests, had him immediately admitted to Doncaster General Hospital under a diagnosis of Shigella. Potentially fatal, Shigella, or bacillary dysentery, is often caught by drinking contaminated water, or eating food that has been washed in contaminated water. With Shigella, the contamination is most often caused by human faeces in the water. Mr Hurley spent five days in isolation but even after he returned home his ordeal was far from over.

 

As a result of his illness, Mr Hurley suffered damage to his liver and kidneys, has irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and suffers from chronic fatigue. He has had to reduce the hours he works at his job, struggles to walk long distances, is easily tired, and has to depend greatly on his wife to not only be the main breadwinner but to also look after him.

 

Of his continuing illness Mr Hurley said: “I am still suffering from symptoms to this day and will do for the rest of my life which has been very difficult to come to terms with”.

 

The couple have now been awarded £286,500 in compensation after First Choice accepted responsibility for their holiday disaster and admitted liability. The couple’s lawyer, Elizabeth Tetzner, said: “It is a tour operator’s responsibility to ensure that standards of hygiene are maintained in the hotel they choose to send holidaymakers to, so that other people do not have to suffer as Mr Hurley has”.

 

First Choice made an out-of-court settlemet with the couple, with a spokespeson saying: “We would like to reassure our customers that their health and safety is of paramount importance”. Since the incident, First Choice have stopped operating on the island of Margarita. Mr Hurley said he was pleased with the settlement that had been awarded, as “it will allow me and Jayne to close this awful chapter in our lives and start looking to the future”.

Several passengers on a Scottish cruise have contracted a serious winter vomiting bug

 

A cruise liner at the Scottish port of Invergordon made headlines on Monday 6th July 2009 when it was revealed that several passengers had been struck by the vomiting bug norovirus. By Tuesday, 380 passengers and members of the crew aboard the Marco Polo showed signs of the virus, according to the BBC (BBC News, 07/07/09 i).

 

The death of 74-year-old passenger Roy Sillet on Monday morning caused further controversy for the tour operator, Transocean Tours of Bremen, amid claims that his death was linked to the outbreak of norovirus. Transocean declared in a public statement that in an “unrelated incident” Mr. Sillet, who allegedly had “chronic heart and breathing problems,” was unable to be resuscitated following a heart attack (BBC News, 06/07/09).

 

Despite this, the interim public health director for NHS Highland, Dr. Ken Oates, declared on Monday that the cause of death was as yet unknown, and had to be confirmed by a post mortem (BBC News, 06/07/09).

 

Dr. Oates also told the BBC that “It was quite late in the day [on Monday] when we became aware of all the facts and by that time a lot of the passengers had already been out and about,” (BBC News, 07/07/09 ii). Councillor Maxine Smith added: “They have been allowed to go into local cafes and shops when apparently this virus is spread by touch. This is really concerning,” (Telegraph.co.uk).
A danger to public health
On Monday, passengers on the Marco Polo were allowed ashore at Invergordon, after the port’s health officials allegedly conducted a health inspection which authorised Transocean’s onboard staff to allow passengers who had been declared healthy to leave the ship in order to sightsee. (BBC News, 06/07/09)

 

Nonetheless Maxine Smith, who is the highland councillor for Cromarty Firth, raised concerns that not enough had been done in the first stages of the incident to inform passengers, locals and health officials. “There doesn’t seem to have been any protocols in place, there was no information,” Councillor Smith told the BBC, voicing the worries of local shopkeepers and residents of Invergordon who feared infection from potential carriers of norovirus. (BBC News, 07/07/09 ii)

 

NHS Highland did advise that the danger of infection to local residents was extremely low. Although common, the health risk of the norovirus bug is greatly magnified in confined spaces – of which cruise ships are a perfect example. Despite being also known as the winter vomiting bug, norovirus can strike at any time of the year, especially threatening children, the old and those already suffering from ill health. Most often, however, those who catch the norovirus bug can expect to make a recovery in a few days. (BBC News, 06/07/09)

 

At risk from infection
Prof. Hugh Pennington, a bacteriologist at the University of Aberdeen explained that norovirus is spread person-to-person, as well as being spread less commonly through food and water and contact with contaminated surfaces or objects like door handles (Telegraph.co.uk). Prof. Pennington pointed out that in situations such as this one aboard a cruise liner, once a person has vomited the virus becomes much more difficult to eradicate. (BBC News, 07/07/09 ii)

 

A passenger on a previous cruise from Tilbury in June, where a sickness bug had also struck several passengers, said this of the tour operators: “Nothing was said to us about taking care to wash our hands etc. It was only in the last few days that someone was standing outside the restaurants and giving us the gel to use on our hands,” (BBC News, 07/07/09 i).

 

 

Passengers and crew of the Marco Polo cruise ship which was struck this week by the vomiting bug norovirus are to return home today, after an agonising week aboard the cruise liner. The ship is due to set sail from Invergordon in the Scottish Highlands to its base in Tilbury, Essex; passengers have also been given the option of travelling back to London by train, on a chartered journey from Inverness which will stop at York and Peterborough. (Scotsman.com, 09/07/09 i)

 

Last Tuesday saw the ship’s operator, Transocean Tours declare that it had decided to terminate its scheduled 10-night cruise after consultations with the health board NHS Highland (Telegraph.co.uk). The NHS reported on Wednesday that 400 people of the 769 passengers and 340 crew members onboard had been examined by doctors at signs of the vomiting bug (BBC News, 08/07/09).

 

 

 

However, in a controversial development on Wednesday, Transocean came under fire from the London Port Health Authority amid accusations that they were not told about a small number of passengers who were suffering from a sickness bug when the liner docked at Tilbury, Essex on Saturday, before the tour began.

 

Having been given “a clean bill of health” at the port according to Transocean Tours, the ship then notified the health authority “stating that 31 passengers and two crew members were suffering from gastro-intestinal illness, prior to the ship calling at Tilbury,” according to a spokesman (BBC News, 08/07/09). A Transocean spokeswoman approached by the Scottish Press had no comment (Scotsman.com, 09/07/09 ii).

 

 

 

The port authority where the Marco Polo liner was docked also received accusations on Wednesday that it was “caught napping” in the midst of the cruise ship bug fiasco. Maxine Smith, Highland Councillor for Cromarty Firth said Cromarty Firth Port Authority had “failed to act decisively and effectively,” adding, “What if it had been typhoid on that boat?” (Highland News, 09/07/09)

 

 

 

One passenger on the ship, Derek Cloke, described how passengers were anticipating being struck by the illness aboard the liner, saying “I have never been through such a traumatic experience. It felt like you were sitting on a hospital prison ship… death row if you like,” (BBC News, 09/07/09).

 

Nonetheless, other passengers have praised the ship’s staff, including kitchen workers, cleaners, nurses and doctors, for their management of the outbreak – although many also complain about the lack of information available to the passengers during the incident. Some tourists travelling home on the train to London hope to be refunded for the remainder of the trip which had to be abandoned. (BBC News, 09/07/09) However, what everyone agrees on is the sense of relief that the dramatic episode is, fortunately, now over.