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Cruise ship safety measure wins House OK
Cruise lines serving U.S. ports would be required to improve crime reporting and safety measures under a bill approved Friday by the House of Representatives.
The measure would require cruise ship
to publicly report shipboard crimes, install peepholes in cabin doors and employ U.S. doctors and at least one crime-scene investigator, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The cruise industry has been a target of criticism over cases of missing passengers, sexual attacks and widespread illnesses aboard ships.
Most cruise ships, registered in foreign countries, are exempt from federal oversight and do not have to report shipboard crimes and illnesses or comply with U.S. labor laws.
The measure -- the first of its kind to go to a House vote -- drew praise from advocates of stricter oversight.
"I am absolutely thrilled," said Kendall Carver, the president of International Cruise Victims, whose daughter disappeared while on an Alaskan cruise in 2004. "It's been a long road and justice is winning out against an industry that really did everything they could to avoid regulations."
The legislation also would require video-surveillance systems, time-sensitive key cards and technology to help determine when someone goes overboard. And ships would be required to have anti-retroviral medications for rape victims to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual assault victims would have to have access to a rape-crisis hot line.
Cruise Lines International Association, an industry lobbying and marketing organization, says it supports the legislation. The association calls cruising one of the safer forms of leisure travel.
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