Look into safety aspect of express boats, time for SRB to walk the talk

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Commentary

INDIGNATION and anger have taken over the initial shock and sorrow over the fate of passengers on board the ill-fated Kawan Mas express boat as we realise it was a tragedy that should not have happened.

In venting their outrage, the public’s most obvious and convenient targets are the Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) and the police for failing to strictly enforce the river traffic laws and the operators for their callous judgement and greed in allowing their boats to run over capacity.

However, while pointing our fingers at these parties, we must not lose sight of the two fundamental causes of this tragedy — design of the express boats and attitude of the people who use them.

Everyone knows these high speed passenger riverboats are disasters waiting to happen, still we continue to sit back and wait for them to happen.

The express boats are built for speed and the comfort of passengers without much thought given to safety.

They have been aptly described as ‘wingless plane fuselages zipping through the water’ and they travel at a speed that would have been unimaginable before their introduction as a mode of fast river transport plying our rivers.

Consider this: There is only one entrance at the front while the way out at the back is usually partially blocked by the toilet and engine room.

Practically, the only way into the boat is also the only way out of it. Such a structural defect inevitably invites disaster if the vessel were to capsize or sink.

Compounding the situation is the fact that the windows are usually sealed or cannot not be opened wide enough for even a child to wriggle out.

How and why the SRB or marine authorities have approved the design of these potential
‘death traps’ is difficult to understand.

Previous accidents, involving these boats, should have driven home the mortal danger of totally disregarding the safety aspects in their design.

Admittedly, accidents of the express boats are rare, keeping the casualty figures low but toll had been always severe when they capsized or sank.

As such, the relatively good safety record of express boats should not be construed as the reason to allow them to operate without any modifications to incorporate the essential safety features in their design.

It is better late than never. SRB should initiate a study on how to improve the safety features of the express boats before another tragedy happens.

While modifying the designs can be done with relative ease, changing the attitude of passengers who were willing to risk life and limb to get onboard even when the boat was overloaded, would take nothing less than a paradigm shift in mindset.

Given the situation, the only way to control the passenger load is through strict enforcement of the law. Let us not pretend the passengers and boat operators will follow the rules without any strict enforcement.

Just three days ago on the occasion of SRB’s 20th anniversary, its chairman Roland Sagah Wee Inn warned boat operators not to allow any passenger on the roof and overload their vessels.

Such occasional perfunctory warnings to errant boat operators on passengers have been nothing more than hot air just to show that the SRB exists.

It is disappointing 20 years after an authority had been set up in Sarawak to monitor the safety of river traffic that boat operators and the passengers themselves are still flouting with impunity the regulations laid down for their own safety.Although overloading was not the actual cause of the Kawan Mas tragedy as apparently the boat hit a rock before it capsized, the presence of dozens of passengers on the roof could have contributed to its instability which led to the vessel turning turtle so fast.

The Kawan Mas could only carry a maximum of 75 passengers but from the latest count of 170 being rescued and 14 still missing, the total was at least 184 – more than twice its capacity.

Where were the SRB officers when the Kawan Mas left Bakun and stop over at Belaga?

Roland partially answered that question in his anniversary address when he said SRB officers could not monitor all the boats as there were too many of them.

However, there can be no excuse for the Board not to have stationed some personnel at Bakun and Belaga where the people depend almost entirely on river transport to go down river with Gawai round the corner.

Commonsense dictates that there is a high possibility of overloading during this time with so many workers rushing home to celebrate the festival.

SRB must walk the talk now and follow up their warnings with action.

So far, the Board has been firing blanks and scaring no one.