‘Stupid is as stupid does’.

In light of recent unfortunate reports of passengers falling to their deaths from cruise ships, and following on from my ‘Inebriation of the Seas’ blogs ,  I read this article in the Daily Mail which quite frankly made my blood boil.

‘Extremely intoxicated’ woman plunges 100 feet into the sea and is now suing the cruise company for encouraging her to get drunk.

Just some background from the article first.

Sarah Kirby, 31, fell off her balcony seven stories into the sea during a Caribbean cruise in October 2012. She claims that she was encouraged to get ‘extremely intoxicated’ by a bartender who was ‘pushing’ Long Island Ice Teas on her group.

Sarah, 31, fell 100 feet into the water in October 2012 and was floating for nearly two hours in fear of her life before she was plucked out of the waves, she alleges that the ship’s staff waited 90 minutes before turning round to look for her and they just gave her painkillers for her serious injuries.

Kirby reportedly had ‘fractured orbital bones, lung contusions, hypothermia, fractured ribs, dissection of the carotid artery, heart arrhythmia, broken optical shelves, blood clots in her eyes, arms, and legs, as well as extreme hematomas all over her body.’

Kirby is suing Carnival Cruises for damages for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Carnival Cruises have refuted the allegations.

Now I may have missed the memo but at which point did us, as adults, stop  being responsible for our own actions? We hear more and more complaints these days of the ‘nanny state’ mollycoddling us, not letting us be responsible for ourselves. So here we have someone making her own choices, choosing to make her own decisions about her alcohol consumption, and as soon as something goes wrong she’s not only blaming someone else but demanding money to compensate for her own stupidity.

In my opinion her suing of Carnival Cruise Lines is beyond reproach. The bartender was just doing his job, he wasn’t forcing her to drink anything.

The fact that she couldn’t say no to more drinks, the fact the she clearly couldn’t handle the situation she put herself in or the fact that she was stupid enough to start leaning over balconies seven stories up while being blind drunk is in no way the fault or responsibility of the cruise line.

The suggestion from this woman that her behaviour and resulting ‘accident’ was somehow somebody else’s fault only underlines how stupid she appears to be.  She decided to drink too much, she decided to lean over her seventh story balcony when drunk, she fell overboard.

With those points in mind I can only come to the conclusion that it was her fault and hers alone. While her injuries do appear quite serious I can’t say I have much sympathy for her,  i’m afraid this woman just has to put this one down to a moment of madness, bite the bullet and move on.

I mean, if we started getting payouts for being stupid and doing stupid things half the worlds population could retire right now, couldn’t they?

Let me know what you think.