Injured due to a Malfunctioning Automatic Door Aboard a Cruise Ship?
Injuries resulting from malfunctioning automatic doors occur with some regularity aboard cruise ships. Automatic doors are often placed on ships’ lido and pool decks separating the exterior and interior sections of the ship. They are also utilized at the entrances in the ships’ theaters, restaurants and gift shops. These doors open and close thousands of times a day allowing passengers and guests to travel about the ship. This constant use necessitates maintenance and system checks to make sure they are properly working. Unfortunately, many times cruise lines do not properly maintain or replace their equipment. Our cruise ship automatic door injury attorneys have discovered that this lack of maintenance often results in injuries.
To prevail in a case involving a malfunction automatic door, the injured passenger must prove that the cruise line failed to act reasonably under the circumstances. This means that the passenger must show that the cruise line either knew or should have known that the door would malfunction and did not take appropriate steps to avoid the accident from happening.
Many automatic door cases handled by our lawyers, involved malfunctioning or improperly calibrated sensors which causes the heavy door to knock over an unsuspecting passenger. Passengers are injured during the initial strike of the door and/or the subsequent fall to the ground.
When representing a client who is injured from a malfunctioning door, our cruise ship automatic door accident attorneys request hundreds of documents from the cruise line designed to discover if that door malfunctioned in the past, when the door was last maintained, and whether the type of door had a history of malfunctioning. We also request documents from the door’s manufacturer to determine whether a recall was issued as to any part of the door and if the cruise line adhered to the recall. With this information, our lawyers position the case to prove the cruise line either knew or should have known that the door would malfunction and was negligent by not undertaking reasonable means by which to repair the door or outright replace it with another door.