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Parents of girl who fell to her death sue cruise company

Chloe Wiegand fell to her death from the 11th story of a cruise ship in Puerto Rico on July 7, 2019. (Provided Photo/Wiegand family)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The Indiana parents of a toddler who fell to her death out of an open cruise ship
window in Puerto Rico filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Royal Caribbean
Cruises, accusing the company of negligence by allowing the window to
be opened.

Chloe Wiegand fell to her death in July after her
grandfather lifted her to the window on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the
Seas ship while the vessel docked. She would have turned 2 this week.

“We
should be celebrating with presents and a birthday cake, but instead we
are talking about her death,” Chloe’s mother, Kim Wiegand of Granger,
Indiana, told reporters at a news conference in nearby South Bend.

She said she spends time with her daughter’s urn every night.

Chloe’s grandfather, Salvatore Anello, has been charged in Puerto Rico with negligent homicide. He insists he’s colorblind and didn’t know the 11th floor window
in the children’s play area was open. He said he believed he was
lifting Chloe so that she could bang on the glass like at a hockey game.

“It was unbelievable. It’s like it disappeared. Its like the glass disappeared,” Anello told CBS News last month. “I am color blind. I’ve been told that that’s the reason that it might have happened.”

The
lawsuit contends that the company violated industry standards by
failing to provide reasonably safe windows in an area where children
play on the ship.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in U.S.
District Court in Miami. It seeks an unspecified financial award. A
Royal Caribbean spokesman said the company had no comment on the
lawsuit.

“We all sit here broken,” Anello said Wednesday. “But our family is strong and we will stay strong together.”

Anello is due in a Puerto Rico court on Dec. 17.