At the start of every cruise, the crew usually makes you go through a series of drills to help you understand the emergency evacuation protocols of the ship you’re on. Go on enough cruises and eventually you might start tuning out. It’s like safety talks on airplanes, it’s easy to tune out when you don’t expect to ever need that information. Except one day you might and there are likely far more incidents on water than there are in planes, in part because planes are so heavily regulated and the regulations are very strict.

As for cruise ships, you’re more like to get sick, from the close quarters, than actually having to evacuate the ship… but it’s not unheard of. Just yesterday, a cruise ship ran aground near the Italian island of Giglio. If you’ve ever watched a cruise ship go into port, you’ll know that sometimes they go into some pretty tight passageways. Running aground is uncommon but when you’re moving anything of that size through such a small channel, mistakes can happen.

In this case, the ship was carrying 3200 passengers and 1000 crew when it ran aground during dinner and at least three people were killed. It just underscores the importance of paying attention during those drills.

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