Haunted by news about 80 year old woman left behind on Lizard Island

[Anonymous]

One more reason to avoid cruises.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t read all the responses but, as someone who cruises often, the ship will leave you if you don’t show up on time. What’s different about this?

[Anonymous]

It’s 2025, have a RDID bracelet and a scanner for every entry of the boat. If we can scan every item of clothes in a store for shoplifters, we can scan as passengers enter and depart.

[Anonymous]

RFID

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the big deal here. There's a whole luxury resort on that island. It's not like it's a remote island with no people on it. I'd have gotten a room at the resort and made the cruise ship pay for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. She was a ripe old age. Everyone is going to die someday, and she died doing what she loved. Even if they had done the headcount and gone back she might have already been dead. People make such a fuss about these incidents. Mistakes happen.

Wait till you or someone you care about gets killed in a car crash or from a medical oopsie. Mistakes happen, huh?

That would be a tragedy now because I am young with young kids. If it happened when I was 81 it would be sad for my immediate family, but it wouldn’t be a tragedy that people on the opposite side of the world need to care about.

So you don’t think it’s tragic for an old woman to die alone forgotten on an island. Wow - such an empty soul.

She's not alone! There's a luxury resort there. She could go there, ask for a boat to be sent, and then leave. This isn't Gilligan's Island.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a little off topic but I did some group tours in Australia this summer, as a solo traveler, and I noticed a cavalier attitude towards checking numbers. There was a transfer from bus to boat and the group leader didn't know how many people should have been on the boat, and almost left without 4 people.

This was alarming to me as a solo traveler since no one would likely mention I was missing. So I just made sure I arrived before the time etc.

I haven't experienced this casual attitude about headcounts in other countries' tours - S Am, Asia, Europe.

Australia was definitely an outlier in this respect.

I definitely fear being forgotten on a snorkeling excursion. I’m just sort of forgrttable. There are always social/beautiful/flashy people on these trips that steal attention. I don’t blame them, but I know what I was given, and it’s plain Jane. I enjoy these excursions just as much as the flashy loud people do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TIL, Australians can't count.

The seem to be doing all right with math over all.

Oz had back to back budget surpluses in
2022-23: $22.1 billion
2023-24: $15.8 billion
(Peanuts for the US but they do take balancing their budgets very seriously)

Australia's public debt is significantly lower than the US's, with Australia's government debt-to-GDP ratio around 30% compared to the US's over 100%.

That said, the negligence shown by the Coral Cruiser crew is shocking. This tragedy has sparked calls for tighter maritime safety rules on Great Barrier Reef.

There are already strict Workplace Health and Safety protocols and Maritime Safety Management Systems in place: - All marine operators are legally required to have strict passenger-verification procedures in place for both in-water and on-land activities.

I don’t think the crew will be able to spin this gross negligence away with stories devised before they dock in Darwin.

Omg that went right over your head. I can’t believe you wrote all that and missed the clear snark.

[Anonymous]

All you folks going on about it's on you if you miss the ship and go get a resort room:

1) this was an excursion planned to a peak on the island and offered by the ship. She felt tired/unable to finish the climb and was left alone to go back down a rugged trail by herself. It's not like she went shopping. Nobody counted people coming off the island. She obviously didn't get far. Nobody looked including the excursion leaders. By contrast they assiduously counted snorkelers as has been the rule since some were once left on the reef and died.

2) Lizard Island resort, where we have also stayed is not right there. One has to go down the trail, a journey she never completed, cross Watson's Beach or go behind on a trail, get to the hotel via another trail. It's not close. The resort requires guests to sign out and back in if you go alone.

Who knows if she tried that in distress after seeing them leave without her. Who knows if it was dark. Her body was found at the base of a cliff.

They

[Anonymous]

Also what's weird is authorities did not board and question crew at once. They will do that in Darwin next week. The company has great economic clout there.

[Anonymous]

This just confirms my belief that boating and boaters operate in a kind of deranged and anarchic realm that appears to be very safe on the surface.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IIRC when we were on Coral Adventurer there were no cabin keys. You could bolt inside but not lock when leaving. Safety or something. So no key cards to scan.
They did manual counts and sometimes a roll call. So counting was crucial.
There are a number of land excursions, not like ship port calls where you roam free. They brought you and got you back. These usually were remote islands, in our case in Indonesia.
As far as 80 being too old, a lot of passengers were a lot older than me (69 at the time). One of them was an Australian artist who told me he was almost 80. He did all the activities and is still painting and traveling to Fiji and around Australia and swimming in the Harbor each morning, at over 85.

There is a lot to be said for staying adventurous, active and enjoying nature right up til the end of life. Good for him.

My experience with Australian boating trips is also that they were very careful. Coral adventurer had a good reputation for a long time and it only takes one sloppy crew to ruin many years of good work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IIRC when we were on Coral Adventurer there were no cabin keys. You could bolt inside but not lock when leaving. Safety or something. So no key cards to scan.
They did manual counts and sometimes a roll call. So counting was crucial.
There are a number of land excursions, not like ship port calls where you roam free. They brought you and got you back. These usually were remote islands, in our case in Indonesia.
As far as 80 being too old, a lot of passengers were a lot older than me (69 at the time). One of them was an Australian artist who told me he was almost 80. He did all the activities and is still painting and traveling to Fiji and around Australia and swimming in the Harbor each morning, at over 85.

There is a lot to be said for staying adventurous, active and enjoying nature right up til the end of life. Good for him.

My experience with Australian boating trips is also that they were very careful. Coral adventurer had a good reputation for a long time and it only takes one sloppy crew to ruin many years of good work.

Have there been other countries with similar or more disastrous and avoidable deaths from boating trips?

[Anonymous]

Do people live on this island or is it deserted except for lizards? What temperature was it? Sad, but when you're older, it doesn't take much to do you in. The cruise ship should refund her money and then some, to the family. They were negligent. Whatever she was going through (heat exhaustion?), being left behind probably only made it worse or gave her a heart attack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t read all the responses but, as someone who cruises often, the ship will leave you if you don’t show up on time. What’s different about this?

What's different is she told people she was feeling tired, she was 80. Tired could mean heart problems. That's just common sense to take care of old people not feeling well.