8 year old critically ill after drowning, Are the Parents or cruise lines to Blame?

Horrific news last week that an 8 year old child was found unconscious at the bottom of the ship’s swimming pool  and is now in a critical condition after joining  Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas cruise ship.  The ship is reported to have had to turn around after leaving Bayonne, New Jersey to seek further medical help

ABC-Channel 7 News NY says that the “8-year-old is currently on life-support.”

Unfortunately this seems to be happening more and more on cruise ships these days where most pools are unattended by lifeguards.

Last December, an eight year old child drowned in an unattended swimming pool on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas. The child had to be pulled unconscious from one of the cruise ship’s pools by a passenger.

A 4 year old boy nearly drowned  aboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas on January 3, 2015.

In May 2014, a 6 year old boy nearly drown on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas and left the child fighting for his life in a hospital.

It seems most cruise lines have had children or adults die or be seriously injured  in their  swimming pools.  Like Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL and Princess Cruises but still don’t feel it necessary to hire  lifeguards.

I think only  Disney  cruise line has employed  lifeguards on its cruise ships.  A 4 year old child nearly drown on the Fantasy and sustained a catastrophic brain injury requiring life-time medical care and resulting in a multi-million dollar settlement. After this Disney changed its policy on supervising the pools

I found one article listing the number of children who had died or been on injured on ships

The Miami Herald  reported that there have been a dozen passengers who have drowned or nearly drowned in cruise ship swimming pools without lifeguards in the last 2-3 years involving primarily children: Royal Caribbean (4)(ages 4, 6, 8 and 8), NCL (3)(ages 4, 6 and 10), Princess (3)(all adults), Carnival (1)(age 6), and Disney (1)(age 4)(before hiring lifeguards).

So why do cruise lines seem to still ignore the fact that surely they need to start ensuring their pools are safe for us to use. Now of course it is ultimately the Parents responsibility to ensure the safety of their children and to know what they are doing but accidents happen, you often see kids running around jumping in the pools unsupervise, but by having that lifeguard their means the children are safe then surely they must look into this.

I can’t really see how employing a lifeguard is going to break the bank with another wage and if the cruise lines really feel they can’t afford another member on the wage bill, then i would rather see one less waiter and maybe have to get of my Bum a bit more to go fetch a drink to ensure a life guard is in place.

What do you think it it the Parents responsibility or should the cruise lines ensure a lifeguard is in Place