News tagged with 'Vacation Safety'

Attempting to retrieve a stuck anchor by reving the 21-foot fishing boat caused it to capsize in the Gulf of Mexico last month, killing three of the four young men on board, two of them NFl players.  Cutting the rope and leaving the anchor would have cost about $100, say investigators.    

Erin Weed has become an advocate for safer spring breaks for college students and for girls learning self defense. Her advocacy comes after a sorority sister was murdered.  Girls who go out with their girlfriends need to go home with their girlfriends, she preaches to college campuses on her spring tour this year. 

Traumatic brain injury is more common that previously thought, as the death of Natasha Richardson points out.  Young males 15 to 24 and  people over the age of 75 are mostly impacted, though many injuries are not readily apparent and may go undiagnosed and untreated.

Just three weeks before the death of Natasha Richardson from a head injury on the ski slope, emergency room doctors in Quebec had called for a mandatory helmet law, saying they save lives.  It is now under consideration.

The U.S. State Department recently issued a travel alert for Mexico due to escalating violence south of the border, but that hasn't stopped thousands of American college students from heading south for spring break.

Could a helmet at the ski slope have saved Natasha Richardson?  In some cases yes, unless the concussion occurs at a high speed. The early signs of brain swelling may go unnoticed, which make survival less likely.   

Nick Schuyler is recovering in a Tampa, Florida hospital and may be released soon, but there is still no word of his friends in the fishing boat that capsized in the Gulf of Mexico Saturday night. The Coast Guard says capsizing is the number one safety hazard for hundreds of small boats off the Florida coast each year. 

Holland America may not have to compensate passengers who were onboard a cruise where norovirus broke out. More than 100 passengers were sickened and the cruise out of San Diego curtailed while the sick stayed in their cabins.