Families of Lamma ferry crash victims drop judicial review after legal aid denied
Withdrawal of review application marks end of 13-year battle for accountability over 39 victims who died in 2012
High Court Judge Herbert Au-yeung Ho-wing said on Wednesday that the proceedings had ceased after the plaintiffs informed the court two days ago that they would not continue the legal challenge.
The four plaintiffs – Alice Leung Shuk-ling, Leung Ka-yan, Philip Chiu Ping-chuen and Tsui-keung – lodged the application in April after the Coroner’s Court reached its verdict on the city’s deadliest maritime accident in recent decades, which claimed the lives of 39 people on October 1, 2012.
The Lamma IV, which was carrying 124 HK Electric employees and their relatives to watch the National Day fireworks over Victoria Harbour, sank after it was hit by the catamaran Sea Smooth near Lamma Island.
The South China Morning Post learned that the victims’ relatives had to stop the proceedings because their application to the Legal Aid Department for this judicial review was rejected.
Coroner Monica Chow Wai-choo in March ruled that the killing of the 39 people was unlawful, pointing to gross negligence by the ships’ two coxswains as one of the reasons causing the crash.
But on the contention over the absence of a watertight door on the underdeck of the sunken Lamma IV, Chow ruled that the omission of that structure was deliberate and compliant with regulatory requirements when the vessel was built in 1994 and 1995.