This incident certainly seems to validate that statement.... [/quote]

No, no it does not.

Look, I'm all for safety and all that, but I'm also realistic about risks, and cruise ships are NOT "death traps" by any rational definition of the term.

In terms of passenger miles, in terms of hours at sea, by basically any metric, cruise ships are generally safe. Yes, a ship lying on its side in some harbor somewhere is sad, scary, whatever. And the last time you saw the same things was....??? Go ahead. Think a while. I'll wait.
Yeah, I can't think of anything either without resorting to Google search.

And that's my point. Now think a moment about the last fatal car wreck you're aware of. Last week? Last month? Last year? There's at least one in your memory, probably more.

Don't let the drama of the media overwhelm your rational brain. It's on the news because it's rare, "impossible" and terrifying. Yet, today, over a dozen people will fall of a ladder and die. Today, several child will ingest poison and die. Today, someone will get killed on the job by electricity. Today, hundreds of people will die of a heart attack. Today, thousands of people will die of chronic illness. And today, there is one cruise ship, at one location, where 0.52% of the people on the ship didn't get out. 0.52%. That means 99.48% of the people on that ship got out in time. That's a pretty good number in any emergency at this scale. Certainly a better survival rate than a plane crash, which tend toward 0% survival.