Injured passenger awarded $300,000 after a jury finds Carnival overserved her alcohol

ktla ^ | 04/15/2026 | David Fischer

[BenLurkin]

Carnival Cruise Line must pay $300,000 to a former passenger after a federal jury in South Florida found that the company was negligent in serving the woman more than a dozen shots of tequila before she fell down some stairs and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury.

The Miami federal jury decided last Friday in favor of Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, California.

...

According to the lawsuit, Sanders was a passenger aboard the Carnival Radiance on Jan. 5, 2024, when was served at least 14 shots between approximately 2:58 p.m. and 11:37 p.m. She experienced a fall some time between 11:45 p.m. and 12:20 a.m. that caused her to suffer a concussion, headaches, a possible traumatic brain injury, back injuries, tailbone injuries, bruising and other injuries, the complaint said.

Aronfeld said jurors were presented with evidence of 30 minutes of missing surveillance video from the time Sanders left the Casino bar until she was found unconscious in a crew-only area.

---

TOPICS: Travel
KEYWORDS:

[alexander_busek]

This fills me with anger. It is an abdication of personal responsibility. It is dumb asses like this person who make it so that the rest of us have to live our lives under the thumb of an increasingly confining nanny state due to litigation like this.

Yeah! Way to go and spoil it for the rest of us who want to drink 15 shots!

Maybe the court expects Carnival to require field sobriety tests after a mere ten drinks!

Regards,

[dznutz]

[rlmorel]

I drank quite heavily when I was younger...as I got older, it took more out of me to the point I just don’t have the energy to drink like that anymore. If I have 1 beer every two weeks or once a month, that is about what I do.

Drinking is a fun social lubricant, as long as you are in the company of others who enjoy it as a social lubricant as well!

Of course, to someone who is stone sober, a socially lubricated person can be quite irritating, depending on the level of lubrication...:)

Been on both sides of that equation, so I try to keep it in mind whenever I do drink, but...if that is once a year at most, that’s it, and I never remember the admonishment to myself to be less enthusiastic around those who are less enthusiastic.

[rlmorel]

Absolutely.

Our judicial system is now flawed in a very fundamental way in the 21st century. The OJ Simpson trial showed that flaw in the late 20th century, and Dan Bongino played a recent clip from ESPN of one of the jurors from the OJ Simpson trial on his podcast today.

INTERVIEWER: You think that there were members of the Jury that voted to acquit OJ because of Rodney King?

JUROR: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: You do?

JUROR: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: How many of you think felt that way?

JUROR: Oh, probably 90% of them.

INTERVIEWER: 90%? Did you feel that way?

JUROR: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: That was payback?

JUROR: Uh huh.

INTERVIEWER: You think that was right?

As Bongino accurately points out, when institutions collapse, and faith in institutions collapse, we descend into anarchy. And this epitomizes the Left. This is their platform. They are the ones wholly to blame for this. It is my observation that these kinds of litigations and trial outcomes are entirely driven by the Left.

Justice Clarence Thomas gave a televised interview the other day, and he said as much without pulling any punches at all. He said the Left is completely incompatible with the principles on which our Republic was founded.

[fwdude]

Whatever an “algo” is, it doesn’t feed me.

I’ve been around long enough to know how things work and who works them. From my first job at a grocery store, where customers would try to stage accidents - drop grapes on the floor and then TRY to slip on them - they were ALL BLACK. I watched them game the welfare system with their food stamps without required documentation. Driving away in fully-loaded, late model Cadillacs.

If you want to keep your head in the sands of the shores of the DeNile, it’s your business. I hope you can breath in that posture.

[wafflehouse]

LOL

[kawhill]

“Carnival Cruise Line must pay $300,000 to a former passenger after a federal jury in South Florida found that the company was negligent in serving the woman more than a dozen shots of tequila before she fell down some stairs and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury.” Heck, I might do that for 300K, might get a free cruise out of it too.

[verum ago]

I have no problem publicly calling that a solid reply to grumpiness.

[Tymesup]

I’m ticked off every time I’m asked to show proof before being served alcohol. It’s a waste of my time. When I comment to the server, they just shrug, they don’t seem to mind that it’s a waste of their time, too.

Meh, when Big Brother is all knowing and all powerful, I won’t need to show proof of age. I might not be allowed alcohol, or not be able to afford it, though.