Yusof (second left) presenting an award to one of the recipients during the Education and Innovation Ministry Appreciation Night.
KOTA KINABALU: Boat operators must prioritize safety measures to avoid a
recurrence of the Sandakan boat tragedy in the future, said Education and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob.
A 40-year-old General Operations Force personnel, Asman Ongkal, who was among 37 people on the passenger boat went missing and was found dead two days later, when the passenger boat collided with another boat that was being towed near Kampung Tanjung Aru waters on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
The 37 people, included 28 secondary school students and nine civilians.
Yusof said the students comprised two Form Six, six from SMK Tionghua and the others from SMK Sandakan.
“We are lucky because there is no loss of life (amongst the students). All students who suffered injuries have been treated and are recovering. The schools, Sabah State Education Department and ministry are very concerned about this matter and we make sure that in future, such an incident would not happen again,” he told reporters at the Education and Innovation Ministry Appreciation Night here on Friday.
“We thank all the organizatons that have provided assistance, and the department had given cash assistance to alleviate the burden of families. However, the incident did not involve loss of life so no big expense was involved. It only involved treament costs. We hope all the assistance will help ease and speed up the children’s recovery process so they can continue to study,” he added.
Yusof said the ministry recognizes that students would experience the effects of trauma because of the incident and counseling would be rendered as well as advice to avoid a reccurence from happening.
“Accidents happen, whether boat collision or shipwrecks or such. But we remind that in the future, the safety process must take precedence, especially in ensuring that the boat is not overloaded.
“Secondly, there must be a safety committee and thirdly, the driver must be responsible for the passengers he is transporting. For example, in cases like this they (boat operators) must take responsibility for the safety of the passengers,” he added.