Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Legal settlement over child's scream that 'ruined' a US tourist's dream holiday to Australia
An American tourist Jean Barnard in January last year experienced a nightmare when she boarded a Qantas plane. A three-year-old boy allegedly leant back over his armrest toward Ms Barnard and let out a severe scream that blood erupted from her ears. She suffered severe and permanent injuries, including sudden sensio-neural hearing loss, from the child's scream. Ms Barnard’s eardrum was exploded, and she became deaf after the incident. In addition, she claimed that she was not able to work since the incident. However, Qantas's US legal team vigorously fought the case, claiming there was evidence Ms Barnard had a hearing problem before she left the US for Australia. In her response, she admitted wearing hearing aids before the case and submitting a volatile email.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is quite hard to believe that a child's scream can lead to hear loss on a permanent basis.
ReplyDeleteThe victim was said to experience damages for physical and mental suffering, medical expenses and loss of impairment of earning capacity. Qantas was claimed to be negligent because the plane's cabin and cockpit crew failed “to take all the necessary precautions to prevent the accident that resulted” in her “injury”.
Well, I think that it is quite impossible for Qantas to carry out those "preventive measures" as they cannot predict when children aboard an aircraft are about to scream. Therefore, we cannot simply put the blame on Qantas.