Photo: Facebook
The mom of an 18-month-old girl whose Julydeath in a fall from a cruise shipled to criminal charges against the girl’s grandfather says “it’s just too much for all of us” after the family filed a civil lawsuit against the cruise line Wednesday while defending the grandfather.
“You can’t even wrap your mind around what’s happened in the first place, and then you have to also grasp this other issue that’s now happening,” the mother, Kim Wiegand, said on NBC’sTodayshow Thursday. “Frankly it’s too much. It’s just too much for all of us.”
Her husband, Alan Wiegand, toldToday: “We expected it to be safe. That was never even in our minds.”
The Indiana family was traveling on the Royal Caribbean ship Freedom of the Seas, which had docked in Puerto Rico. The grandfather,Salvatore Anello, has said he was holding his granddaughter,Chloe Wiegand, against a railing adjacent to what he thought was a bank of closed windows in a children’s play area of the ship. But as the toddler slipped from his grasp, she fell through an open window onto a dock 10 stories below.
Anello maintains his innocence and has a court appearance scheduled for Dec. 17.
Alan and Kim Wiegand.TODAY
At a news conference Wednesday in South Bend announcing the civil filing against Royal Caribbean, Anello, who is Kim Wiegand’s father, read a statement that said, “I sit here broken, we all sit here broken. Our family is strong and we will stay strong together,” reports theSouth Bend Tribune.
The Wiegands — Alan is a South Bend police officer — have said they don’t blame Anello for what they and the family’s attorney, Michael Winkleman, say was a tragic accident and not a crime.
The “singular goal” of the lawsuit against Royal Caribbean “is to raise awareness about window falls and trying to prevent this from happening to another child ever again,” Winkleman said at the news conference, according to theTribune.
“Just four simple words, ‘Caution: These windows open,’ would have alerted Sam to the danger,” he said. “Chloe would still be here today.”
Chloe Wiegand.Facebook
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The cruise line said in a statement issued to PEOPLE Wednesday: “Our hearts go out to the family for their tragic loss. Mr. Salvatore Anello is currently being criminally prosecuted for negligent homicide in the case. We have no comment on the civil filing.”
The suit does not make a specific claim to damages.
In her own statement at the news conference, Kim Wiegand said: “We believe that filing a lawsuit against the cruise line sends a message to them that they were wrong. Most of all, we hope that this improves the safety of these ships for other children and other families.”
“No other family should have to grieve the kind of loss we have to grieve,” she said. “The only people who can really understand this pain are other parents who themselves have lost a child. It is 10 times worse than you can ever imagine. If this lawsuit prevents another death, then it is worth it to us.”
Friday would have been Chloe’s second birthday.
“We should be celebrating with a present and a birthday cake, but instead we’re here talking about her death,” her mother said in her statement. “I spend my evenings visiting with her urn rather than rocking my little girl to sleep. We would do anything to find ourselves in different circumstances other than these.”
source: people.com
