Some unanswered questions about launch tragedies

Another launch capsized in the river Padma on Monday. As reported in the media the reason for the launch to capsize this time is the same as before-- carrying more passengers than its capacity and for being unfit. After the accident of this launch, the government took the same initiative as it did after launches capsized in the past-formation of investigation committees to investigate the reason for the accident and ordering the committees to provide the report of the investigation after a certain period.

In the recent past there were several launch accidents where many people perished. To ensure that such launch accidents do not continue to be a recurring event, it is important to determine a few things- whether the committees that were formed to investigate the reason for the previous launch accidents ever presented their reports, if anyone was ever punished or penalised for their negligence and wrongdoings for which the accidents occurred, if the authority in charge of ensuring that the launches are not being overloaded will keep citing lack of manpower to shy away from their duty; and has the government taken any initiative that will prevent such mishaps in the future such as strengthening the capacity of the authority in charge of monitoring the launches and organising awareness programmes to warn people about the dangers of boarding in overcrowded launches or riding on the roofs of launches.

Ridwan Quaium

Transportation engineer working in Thailand

ridwanq@gmail.com