I snipped to address only the reply to my post. I searched for the photo you spoke of and couldn’t find it. Would you please provide a link?
I did, however, find an article that says the family’s attorneys claim the window was 18 inches beyond the railing and that Mr. Anello would have had to have had his feet 7 inches off the floor to touch the window with his head. I’m at a loss as to why Mr. Anello was leaning over the railing for a full 8 seconds (at about :35 on this video) before he lifted Chloe. What do you think?
Crucial questions: How tall is Mr. Anello, and how high is the railing? I’m 62.5 inches. I have a desk that’s exactly 18 inches deep and 32 inches high. I tried leaning over it, and though I had to raise my heels, my feet didn’t have to leave the floor for me to bend over far enough for my head to touch the wall immediately behind the desk.
So how tall is Anello? How high was the railing? Was the stand-in Mr. Anello’s height?
I suspect he’s looking down, admiring the view. As you can see from the photo in the link above, with the window going almost all the way to the deck, angled as it is, you can be looking down through the lower part of the window but still not be breaking the plane with the upper part of the window.
I don’t know his precise height, but going by the picture (again, from the USA Today article), the railing is a good bit higher than 32 inches. As it should be to provide adequate fall protection (in fact if it weren’t, since that would put it well below center of gravity for most of us, I’d say they genuinely were negligent in the design).
Since you’re okay with doing some self-experimention, I would strongly encourage you and everyone else to just try holding something weighing 20 pounds—even a dead weight—out in front of you with arms outstretched, raised out and above your head (Lion King-style), or even with your arm supported by resting on a railing or other object (like a chair back) that comes up to your rib cage.
I find it even harder to believe after doing that myself that he could hold an 18-month old in such a position for more than a transitory period, as in shifting from a cradling position to resting on a bar or railing. The “dangled the baby out a window” hypothesis is not only not shown clearly in the video footage available, it doesn’t even seem practical to do even if you wanted to. Seriously, to anyone who thinks it’s practical, and bearing in mind this guy (the grandfather) doesn’t look like a body-builder, pick up 20 pounds and hold it out in front of you for 30 seconds if you don’t believe me. Not cradled, but out with your arms away from the body even just partially extended, even with, say, your elbows resting on furniture (but with the weight itself being supported by nothing by your grip).
As I’ve said, I’ve had two toddlers. I know how heavy 20 pounds is. And a 20-lb. weight is not a good substitute because toddlers squirm. I agree his solo lean forward was to see the view. I believe he picked up Chloe to show her the view with one arm* around her waist, just as he said. But I believe while HE knew there was no window, SHE did not. She leaned forward and squirmed to tap a window that wasn’t there, and he simply couldn’t hold her with one arm. Toddlers are quite top-heavy.
I did read the article (Thanks!) and saw the reenactment photo. I then forced myself to watch the video again to see the angle at which Anello leaned. In the reenactment photo, the railing would have come up to just below the stand-in’s chest if his feet had been on the deck. But at the angle at which the stand-in leans, if he’d been holding Chloe by one arm, she would have dropped between the railing and the window, not OUT the window. And in the video, Anello clearly leans out at a greater angle than the stand-in would have been able to do, so I’m not so sure the stand-in really was Anello’s height. If the angle is misleading, and I don’t see how it could be in this regard, I hope that’s proven by one of the other 11 videos the defense claims the cruise line has.
I think Anello was negligent, sadly, but I suspect he was a good guy. Maybe he’d never spent time with a toddler before. I can’t imagine having to live with that horrifying memory and that loss the rest of your life, so while the charges are accurate, I’m not so sure he deserves prison time.
*Anello’s upper right arm is clearly showing in the video.
I think he might possibly be in deep denial. He leaned out the window holding a toddler, thought he had it under control, but she squirmed and he couldn’t hold on. His brain is telling him it couldn’t possibly be his fault. It’s an incomprehensibly horrible thing that he’ll have to live with for the rest of his life.
I disagree, people in denial over a thing like that convince themselves that they did nothing wrong. Years ago had a couple near my office two blocks from home got in a low speed crash with a drunk driver. Mom was breastfeeding the infant. Infant killed, crushed between mom and airbag. Was not in carseat as required by law. If it had been in the carseat would have been fine. Drunk pled guilty and got 20 years. Mom and dad not prosecuted because DA thought they had suffered enough due to loss of infant. Were on the news later saying they had done nothing wrong and it was all the fault of the other driver.
Where does the family suggest that they believe GF did anything wrong? Everything I’ve seen/heard indicates that they think it was absolutely appropriate for him to lift a toddler up to bang on a glass window 100+ feet up, w/o making even a cursory check to see if there was a pane of glass to bang on. In fact, they believe it is entirely reasonable for people to act in that manner, unless there is some obvious warning to encourage them to exercise rudimentary care.
I agree completely with this. I see people in deep denial all the time and people who seriously fuck up latch on to something else in order to live with themselves. Their script is that he can’t possible be his fault because they didn’t warn him that windows may be open. Riiiiiight. And that you can balance a toddler on an open window sill.
I think he knew it was open as well or should have known it was open if he weren’t drunk. I just can’t see how you can have a toddler that close to the window and not know. His story just doesn’t make sense.
Giving my WAG, I think he was drunk or is an absolutely idiot.
I suspect he tried to balance her on the window sill rather than the railing, because he had a hand on her while she was on the railing, it would have taking her doing a swan dive out to have her fall out. He lifted her really high over the railing. I don’t think he was holding her close to his chest
my reply meant that I believe it is very possible that the grandfather will be in denial and believe he did nothing wrong. Didn’t say anything about the thoughts of the family members.
Anyone hear of any update to this story? Latest I could find was from Feb, concerning his guilty plea. I imagine their wrongful death case is still continuing.
Sorry, I just saw this reply. Way late. It’s so long ago I can’t even remember where I heard it. Definitely “heard” it so I know I had no physical link to it. I could have misheard of course, but I was really surprised to hear it and was fairly shocked by it. I’m willing to concede the point.
Nothing was said about the cruise line needing safety features to stop family members from holding children out of windows, but that might happen next.
“Mr. Anello reached out in front of him and felt no glass in the window opening before extending the Decedent out to the window opening,”
"A reasonable person through ordinary use of his senses would have known of the dangers associated with Mr. Anello’s conduct. Accordingly, the defendant owed no duty to warn of it…The true risk-creating danger here was Mr. Anello lifting a child up to an open window. The Plaintiffs have provided no evidence showing the Defendant was on notice of that danger.”