Cases involving injuries to cruise ship passengers may include injuries, deaths, missing passengers who apparently fell in the ocean, passengers being hit by falling objects, food poisoning, being thrown by rough seas due to the neglect of the captain and nearly every other conceivable type of injury possible on land can exist on cruise ships. Injuries also occur when passengers leave the ship to visit ports of call. Cruise ships arrange and promote tours, trips, scuba, fishing and other activities and sometimes they do not check out or monitor the safety of these companies that provide the services the cruise ship sells to the passengers.
Belle Glade is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. The population was 14,906 at the 2000 census. According to the U. S Census estimates of 2007, the city had a population of 16,739. Belle Glade (and the surrounding area) is sometimes referred to as "Muck City" due to the large quantity of muck, in which sugarcane grows, found in the area. About half the sugarcane in the nation is grown in the plains around Belle Glade and nearby Clewiston. Culturally, Belle Glade is more associated with the Florida Heartland than South Florida. For a time during the early to mid-1980s, the city had the highest rate of AIDS infection in the United States. According to the FBI in 2003 the city had the second highest violent crime rate in the country at 298 per 10,000 residents.