By: DELILAH GUTIERREZ
Staff Writer
On July 7, Alan and Kimberly Wiegand, along with their daughter, Chloe, and her grandfather, Salvatore, went on a Royal Caribbean Cruise. Chloe was in the children’s pool area with her mother on the 11th deck. When Kimberly had to attend to another matter, Salvatore came to supervise the 18-month-old. Chloe walked over to the wall of glass near the pool area with Salvatore closely behind. The wall of glass had a railing that was about 18 inches away from the wall and, unknowing to Salvatore, one of the windows was open. Salvatore put the child on the railing and when the child tried to bang on the window, she fell about 150 feet onto the pier. Salvatore fell to his knees and cried out, “I dropped my child. I thought there was glass. I thought there was glass.” Other people in the area came to look through the window to see what happened while others left the pool area. Salvatore has been charged with negligent homicide in connection to Chloe’s death. The surveillance footage captured the final moments of Chloe’s death. In the video, Salvatore can be seen walking to the window with Chloe and he appears to look over the railing through the open window. The grandfather places Chloe on the railing and they look out the open window together. He then sits Chloe on the railing and, when they look out the window for the second time, Chloe disappears from the frame. Salvatore falls to his knees and cries out, “I dropped my child. I thought there was glass. I thought there was glass.” While looking into the situation, Salvatore’s lawyer, Michael Winkleman, said the windows were not compliant with the standards for cruise ship windows. Alan and Kimberly Wiegand are suing the cruise ship as it failed to provide reasonably safe children entertainment areas, adequately mark the open windows, and install safety prevention devices on the windows.