We have supported the International Cruise Victims Organization (ICV) and frankly very disappointed it has take congress all these years to make this wrong a right.
Let's finish the job and make all involved accountable!
Sandy Dhuyvetter
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 16, 2015
CONTACT:
Jonelle Trimmer (Rep. Matsui) 202-225-7163
Sarah Zukowski (Sen. Blumenthal) 202-224-0335
Congresswoman Matsui & Senator
Blumenthal Express Concerns with Coast Guard Rulemaking on Passenger
Protections for Cruise Vessels
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman
Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to the
Commandant of the Coast Guard expressing concerns with oversights in the Coast
Guard’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the implementation of the
Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA). Matsui and Blumenthal –
sponsors of CVSSA follow-up legislation, the Cruise Passenger Protection Act –
urge that the Coast Guard’s final regulations reflect the intent of the
legislation and provide strong protections for cruise passengers.
“We appreciate
this opportunity to comment as we are concerned with several items in the
NPRM. These items must be addressed in order to ensure that the CVSSA is
truly improving safety on cruise ships and protecting the lives and well-being
of all passengers,” the members wrote. “Although we are pleased
that many of the mandated items from the CVSSA were included in the NPRM – such
as requirements for peep holes in cabin doors, security latches and
time-sensitive key technology – there are several oversights in the proposed
rules that bring us great concern.”
Specifically,
the letter calls on the Coast Guard to address the following concerns:
- A
Man Overboard System should be required to be installed on all cruise
ships, as the technology is now available.
- The
Coast Guard should certify Victim’s Advocates for the Cruise lines to make
certain victims are informed of their rights and ensure the Cruise lines
are in compliance with the laws.
- Medical
staff credentialing and certifying processes outlined and required in the
CVSSA must be adhered to when treating all medical cases onboard a ship,
not just in cases of sexual assault.
- Cruise
ships must add acoustic sounding devices. A ship’s public address
system is not enough because it was not designed to be audible at great
distances from the ship.
- The
requirements of the CVSSA should apply to all voyages regardless of
whether or not it embarks or disembarks passengers in the United
States.
A PDF copy of
the signed letter is available here.
The full text of
the letter is below:
April 15, 2015
Admiral
Paul F. Zukunft
Commandant of the Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
2701 Martin Luther King Jr Avenue Southeast
Washington, DC 20032
Dear Admiral Zukunft:
We write pursuant to
the United States Coast Guard’s request for comment on the notice of proposed
rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register on January 16, 2015 (80 FR
2350) regarding the passenger vessel regulations to implement the Cruise Vessel
Security and Safety Act (CVSSA). The CVSSA became law in 2010, and as
longtime advocates for stronger passenger protections on cruises and sponsors
of the Cruise Passenger Protection Act, follow-up legislation to the CVSSA, we
have a particular interest in making certain that the final regulations
implemented pursuant to the legislation are in line with the original intent of
Congress.
We appreciate this opportunity to
comment as we are concerned with several items in the NPRM. These items must be
addressed in order to ensure that the CVSSA is truly improving safety on cruise
ships and protecting the lives and well-being of all passengers. Although we
are pleased that many of the mandated items from the CVSSA were included in the
NPRM – such as requirements for peep holes in cabin doors, security latches and
time-sensitive key technology – there are several oversights in the proposed
rules that bring us great concern.
First, the CVSSA requires a Man Overboard (MOB) System to be installed on all
cruise ships as
the technology becomes available. The legislation was enacted five years ago,
and the technology is indeed now available for installation. Accordingly, the
Coast Guard should require a MOB system on all cruise ships. This system should
have both an alarm and video capture feature. The clear intent of Congress was
for these systems to have the capability to immediately capture and detect a
man-overboard event. Video capture alone is insufficient because an alarm
feature is needed to expedite a search for an overboard passenger and to prevent
valuable time from being wasted reviewing camera footage. Thus, it is very
important that the fall detection system should have both the detection
capability to sound an immediate alarm and a capture system to record the event
for documentation and evidence purposes for criminal investigations.
Second,
the CVSSA gives victims the right to keep information confidential from the
cruise line unless written permission is given by the victim to disclose such
information. However, the proposed regulations state that the Coast Guard will
train an employee from the cruise lines to oversee the handling of victims of a
sexual crime. The proposed rules inappropriately designate such an
employee to be the first point of contact for victims of sexual assault.
This is contrary to the intent of the CVSSA because potentially confidential
and sensitive information would be given to the cruise lines without the victim
first knowing of their legal rights. In addition, crime victims, under the
CVVSA, were given the legal right to report crimes directly to a government
agency rather than to a cruise line’s security personnel who have no legal
authority to arrest, skill to provide care, or training to properly investigate
or collect evidence. Moreover, the
training of a cruise line employee to counsel a victim of sexual assault would
also be a breach of the law not only under CVSSA’s confidentiality clauses, but
also under the Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act. The remedy that we urge the
Coast Guard to consider would be for the agency to certify a Victim’s Advocate to
make certain the victim was informed of his or her rights and ensure the cruise
line was in compliance with the laws.
Third, medical staff credentialing and
certifying processes outlined and required in the CVSSA must be adhered to and
considered applicable in the course of treating and caring for all medical
cases onboard a ship, not just in cases of sexual assault. We believe that the
proposed eight hour course prepared and issued by the Coast Guard, FBI, and
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in crime prevention, detection, evidence
preservation and reporting will not meet an acceptable standard. Outside
experts including private maritime training academies have concurred that this
course must be improved. This training should be mandatory and certified by an
independent third party entity and not including in-house training by the
cruise lines themselves.
Fourth, the CVSSA required that cruise
ships add acoustic sounding devices. This would serve to enforce the Homeland
Security requirement that no ship – such as a ship manned by pirates or
terrorists -- should come within 500 feet of a cruise ship. For the proposed
regulations not to consider terrorism a possibility in US waterways, ports and
harbors, or that cruise ships are a terrorist target, is to deny the
circumstances of September 11, 2001, and the recent terrorist attack in the
National Bardo Museum in Tunisia, which left 17 cruise passengers dead.
Acoustic hailing devices are a critical way for a cruise ship to confront small
vessel threats at safe distances before those vessels become threats both
domestically and in overseas ports. A ship’s public address system is not
enough to satisfy this requirement because it does not have the technical
capability, nor was it designed to be audible at great distances from the ship.
Finally, the requirements of the CVSSA
should be applicable to all voyages regardless of whether or not a voyage
“embarks or disembarks passengers in the United States.” There is no reason for
any cruise ship to be given special dispensation or exemption from critical,
life-saving measures simply because of a “temporary” visiting status.
We would appreciate clarification
regarding our concerns with the NPRM and we urge the Coast Guard to consider
these changes. The CVSSA was signed into law for the purpose of protecting
those onboard cruise ships and we believe these provisions must be fully
implemented as originally intended to ensure the safety of cruise line
passengers. We look forward to your cooperation as we work together to strengthen
the final regulations in order to prioritize the safety
of travelers and victims onboard cruise ships.
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