Trigger warning: child death

Salvatore Anello, who dropped his two-year-old granddaughter from a cruise ship, knew "unquestionably" that the window was open, new court documents reveal. Anello, who was holding Chloe Weigand up to a window on the ship when it docked in Puerto Rico, dropped the child unintentionally.

The two-year-old suffered fatal injuries after she fell from an 11th-floor window on the Freedom of the Seas ship 150 feet to the concrete dock below last July. After the accident, Anello claimed he wasn’t aware that the window was open. He was eventually charged with criminal neglect by Puerto Rican authorities.

Now, court documents filed by Royal Caribbean have revealed that there was "no hidden danger" and that Anello "knew the window was open." The operator says that Anello, who claims he lifted the child so she could bang on the window, only needed to use his "basic senses" to understand that it was dangerous to lift the young girl to the open window.

Alan and Kimberly Wiegand, Chloe's parents, were on a family vacation when the fatal accident occurred. The family, residents of South Bend, Indiana, was reportedly so distraught after the fatal fall that they had to be sedated by medical personnel. They filed a multi-million-dollar negligence lawsuit against Royal Caribbean for allegedly not installing safety devices or warning signs on the glass window.

The lawsuit claims that Anello could not distinguish whether the window was open or not since he is color blind. The young girl would reportedly bang on the glass at a local ice rink when her brother played hockey games. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean says it adhered to industry safety standards and lamented the countless "false and inaccurate accusations" made by the family. The company has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit since it was not able to "limit its expressions to those of sympathy and support."

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The court documents say that surveillance cameras confirm that Anello knowingly held his granddaughter up to an open window and leaned forward before losing his grip and dropping the child to the dock below. Adding that "His actions, which no reasonable person could have foreseen, were reckless and irresponsible and the sole reason why Chloe is no longer with her parents."

Source: The Sun