Hong Kong Ferry Captain Sentence to Eight Years in Collision Where 39 Died

Posted on by February 16, 2015


Photo: Kin Cheung/Associated Press

In 2012, we posted about the collision between the passenger ferry Sea Smooth and the ferry Lamma IV off Hong Kong near Lama Island. The collision killed 39, all passengers on the Lamma IV .  The Lamma IV  was carrying staff and family members of the Hongkong Electric Company to watch fireworks in the city’s Victoria Harbour to celebrate China’s National Day and mid-autumn festival.  It was the deadliest maritime disaster in Hong Kong since 1971.

Today, the captain of the ferry Sea Smooth, Lai Sai-ming, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of 39 counts of manslaughter. The captain of the Lamma IV, Chow Chi-wai, was acquitted on Saturday of manslaughter but found guilty of the endangering the safety of others at sea and was sentenced to nine months in prison.

Hong Kong Ferry Captain Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison for Deadly Collision

Comments

Hong Kong Ferry Captain Sentence to Eight Years in Collision Where 39 Died — 2 Comments

  1. This month is the 51st anniversary of the collision between HMAS Voyager and the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne. Eighty two men died, including the captain of Voyager, Known as Drunken Duncan Stevens.
    Despite two Royal Commissions of inquiry, no one was ever punished.
    The point of this comment, and its relevance to the Hong Kong incident, is that blame rarely seems to be laid further up the food chain. There is abundant evidence of criminal negligence and perversion of the course of justice by high-ranking naval officers and bureaucrats being deliberately concealed by the government of the day. Chief of Naval staff, Vice Admiral Sir Alan McNicoll, on whose watch the disaster occurred, was rewarded upon his retirement with a posting as Australia’s ambassador to Turkey. The last claim for compensation by a Voyager survivor was settled in 2009, 45 years after the event.
    I think we need to be rather skeptical of the findings by legal eagles in a cosy court room weeks or months after the event.

  2. Agreed. Those who are blamed rarely are the only only ones culpable. Nothing can be done to bring back the dead and whether justice is ever done is an open question.