Lamma ferry tragedy: So much for justice and equality before the law when government officials are not held to account over deaths

Philip Bowring says the decision not to hold Marine Department officials responsible for the regulatory lapses that contributed to the Lamma ferry tragedy is unconscionable

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It is scant consolation that victims' families can take civil action, given its huge costs and the extensive resources of the government. Photo: David Wong

Published: 9:30am, 10 Oct 2015

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is not above the law, we are assured. But one serious issue which suggests there is sometimes one law for government officials and corporations, and one for the general public is the case of the Lamma ferry sinking. This was Hong Kong's worst maritime disaster in modern times, with 39 deaths and 92 injuries.

The Lamma IV ferry, a company-owned boat, was carrying HK Electric employees and their families to see the National Day fireworks in 2012. The sea was calm, visibility was good, and the collision was not at high speed. Yet the Lamma IV sank, stern first, within two minutes of the collision with a public ferry, the Sea Smooth, operated by Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry Limited.

How convenient to place all the blame on the skippers of the vessels rather than on officials and others presiding over a failure to implement safety regulations and making design changes

Now we are told that no one in the Marine Department can be prosecuted, allegedly for a lack of evidence. What nonsense. Are we to assume that the department's records are so badly kept and that buck-passing is so widespread that no one is responsible for anything?

Boats, like cars, are supposedly designed to minimise risks to passengers in the event of collisions, whether caused by human error or other factors such as, in the case of boats, hitting semi-submerged containers that have fallen off ships. Boats are, additionally, supposed to have an adequate supply of accessible life jackets in view of the danger of sinking.

Factors responsible for the death toll included the lack of a bulkhead door; this lack, together with the placing of 8.25 tonnes of additional ballast, caused the vessel to sink at a steep angle, making escape very difficult. Photo: Sam Tsang

In the Lamma IV case, the high death toll was directly attributed to inadequacies in the vessel and its safety features, which were, according to the report of the inquiry into the tragedy, the direct result of failures by people in the Marine Department, the company and elsewhere to follow and implement safety standards.