An incident on yesterday morning's Discovery Bay Ferry serves to highlight safety concerns I have previously held. It is an acknowledged fact by all who travel on the Discovery Bay ferries that the crew do not speak any English. The safety cards in each seat pocket advise that, in an emergency passengers should follow the instructions of the boat crew. Most messages are broadcast over the speakers in both Chinese and English by way of pre-recorded tapes. However, if there is any information for which a standard tape is not available, the crew announce in Chinese only, leaving the non-Chinese-speaking passengers wondering what is going on. Yesterday, DB No. 5 left Discovery Bay at 7am in fairly heavy fog. Some 15 minutes into the journey the engines were suddenly stopped and the boat started a severe turning manoeuvre. There was then a large bang as the ferry struck (ironically) another Discovery Bay ferry travelling in the opposite direction. The contact was quite severe. Being on the upper deck and sitting on the opposite side to the collision, my wife and I had no idea how serious the damage may have been, nor whether any injuries had occurred. Various boat crew started running around. There was then a panicky announcement, in Chinese. We tried to ask the crew what was happening but were met with shrugged shoulders. More announcements came over, again in Chinese. Eventually we asked a fellow passenger who kindly translated for us. Thankfully there were no injuries and the boat completed the journey to Central at a slow speed. My principal concern is that it is surely a dangerous situation to have no English-speaking crew on these boats. Had the emergency been serious, say the vessel was sinking, or on fire, a disaster is in the making. In addition, Discovery Bay Ferries continually advertise the safety of their ferries, carrying the latest in radar and a Global Positioning System, known as GPS. How on earth did they manage to collide with each other? It was noticed that the use of the fog horn, previously silent, was used with much gusto for the remainder of the journey. DAVID S. HULME Discovery Bay