A London, Ont., lifeguard who fell off a party cruise in Toronto and drowned was intoxicated, according to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada report.
The report, released Thursday, also found that the man-overboard signal was not sounded on the ship, leading to an un-coordinated emergency response from the crew.
Keith White, 34, fell off the Northern Spirit cruise in Lake Ontario in Toronto on June 13, 2015.
The TSB report says that, during the evening cruise, security guards on the vessel noticed that “one of the passengers was behaving erratically and appeared to be intoxicated.
“When the passenger was seen leaning over the upper deck railing on the starboard side, two security guards rushed over to him and attempted to prevent him from falling, but he went overboard,” the report says.
The TSB said numerous organizations joined the search effort, but could not find White, who was a certified lifeguard. His body was recovered 18 days later.
“The investigation found that the passenger was intoxicated, and that he had been drinking before boarding and while on board the vessel,” the report says, adding that crew members did not detect that White was drunk and did not deny him beverage service.
“The passenger's high blood alcohol concentration affected motor skills and increased the risk of hypothermia, which decreases the chance of survival in the water,” the report says.
The report also concluded that the crew's response to the emergency “was not co-ordinated and did not align with the company emergency procedures.
“In addition, there were delays in launching the vessel's emergency boat owing to its position on the vessel's stern,” the report said.
Although the crew had performed some emergency drills, they had not performed any man-overboard drills, the TSB said.
A few months after White’s death, his family launched a lawsuit against Mariposa Cruises, which owns the Northern Spirit I.
In a statement Thursday, White’s family said they were “devastated” to learn that no emergency alarm was sounded on the ship. The family also claims that it took 46 minutes for the safety boat on board the Northern Spirit to deploy and help search for White.
“Our family is reeling as, for us, the TSB investigation reinforces that this incident was very preventable,” the statement said.
“It has been tremendously difficult for our family to relive the events contributing to Keith’s clearly unnecessary death. We miss him every day, and his larger than life personality continues to leave a hole in our hearts and family,” the family said.
None of the allegations in the family’s lawsuit against Mariposa Cruises have been proven in court
