Lalmohon launch tragedy
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
The Lalmohon-bound passenger launch, M.V. Coco, was only a few yards away from the shore when tragedy struck. The launch, which was carrying an unspecified number of passengers from Dhaka, sank in the river Tetulia in the early hours of Saturday, the Eid-ul-Azha day. Local people and rescue workers have so far recovered 77 bodies from the half-sunken hull of the vessel. Many more, reportedly, are still missing. The casualties of the accident were relatively 'few' because many passengers managed to swim ashore, which was not far away, and the local people rescued many others alive. But a good number of passengers who got trapped inside the sunken part of the hull could not escape death. The air of many Lalmohon villages is still heavy with the wails of the grieving families.
The actual cause of the M.V. Coco accident is not yet known. One report says that the vessel hit a shoal and its rear part sank. But that seems very unlikely since the launch had almost reached one of its regular stoppages. According to another report, the captain lost control over the vessel when there was a mad rush of passengers to come out through its main entrance following their serious disagreement with the launch employees over fare. The employees of the launch, allegedly, closed the main entrance. Obviously on the eve of Eid festival, the ill-fated launch was carrying passengers several times more than its lawfully permitted limit. It was, reportedly, carrying nearly 1500 passengers against the permitted limited of 600. With so much of extra-load of passengers, it really becomes difficult on the part of the captain (locally known as 'Sareng') of a vessel to keep control over a ship or boat in the event of turbulent weather or any other man-made destabilizing act.
Launch accidents are recurrent events and the causes of the same are always not necessarily natural. Man-made causes, in many cases, are responsible for frequent tragedies. The minister for shipping went to Lalmohon soon after the incident and formed a committee as usual to find the reasons behind the accident. Would it make any difference? Scores of reports on similar incidents have been gathering dust on the shelves of the shipping ministry, with the government not bothering even to go through the same. The shipping ministry this time needs to depart from the past practices. It must take the agency, that allowed the launch to carry passengers three to four times their permitted capacity, to task. Luckily, it was only MV Coco. There could have been many more such accidents. Big or small, all passenger launches left Dhaka before Eid carrying passengers several times more than their capacities. Given the circumstances, even Saturday's Lalmohan tragedy might not deter the launch companies from repeating the same high risk journey back during the next few days when people would be returning to the capital city from their village homes.
Life is, actually, very cheap in this over-populated country. Deaths in road accidents are very common. Even the death of 20 to 30 people in a road accident fails to draw adequate media attention. Major rail and launch accidents get prominence because they are not daily events. But the way things are being supervised and managed, it may not take too long a time for such accidents becoming regular events. For instance, the BIWTA salvage vessel Hamza that remains stationed at Barisal took 35 hours to reach the Saturday's launch accident site. Besides, Hamza is an aged vessel and does not have the capacity to salvage large motor vessels. The government should enforce the relevant laws and rules if it is really interested in stopping the recurrence of motor launch accidents, in addition to taking efforts for strengthening the BIWTA's salvage operation capability.
The actual cause of the M.V. Coco accident is not yet known. One report says that the vessel hit a shoal and its rear part sank. But that seems very unlikely since the launch had almost reached one of its regular stoppages. According to another report, the captain lost control over the vessel when there was a mad rush of passengers to come out through its main entrance following their serious disagreement with the launch employees over fare. The employees of the launch, allegedly, closed the main entrance. Obviously on the eve of Eid festival, the ill-fated launch was carrying passengers several times more than its lawfully permitted limit. It was, reportedly, carrying nearly 1500 passengers against the permitted limited of 600. With so much of extra-load of passengers, it really becomes difficult on the part of the captain (locally known as 'Sareng') of a vessel to keep control over a ship or boat in the event of turbulent weather or any other man-made destabilizing act.
Launch accidents are recurrent events and the causes of the same are always not necessarily natural. Man-made causes, in many cases, are responsible for frequent tragedies. The minister for shipping went to Lalmohon soon after the incident and formed a committee as usual to find the reasons behind the accident. Would it make any difference? Scores of reports on similar incidents have been gathering dust on the shelves of the shipping ministry, with the government not bothering even to go through the same. The shipping ministry this time needs to depart from the past practices. It must take the agency, that allowed the launch to carry passengers three to four times their permitted capacity, to task. Luckily, it was only MV Coco. There could have been many more such accidents. Big or small, all passenger launches left Dhaka before Eid carrying passengers several times more than their capacities. Given the circumstances, even Saturday's Lalmohan tragedy might not deter the launch companies from repeating the same high risk journey back during the next few days when people would be returning to the capital city from their village homes.
Life is, actually, very cheap in this over-populated country. Deaths in road accidents are very common. Even the death of 20 to 30 people in a road accident fails to draw adequate media attention. Major rail and launch accidents get prominence because they are not daily events. But the way things are being supervised and managed, it may not take too long a time for such accidents becoming regular events. For instance, the BIWTA salvage vessel Hamza that remains stationed at Barisal took 35 hours to reach the Saturday's launch accident site. Besides, Hamza is an aged vessel and does not have the capacity to salvage large motor vessels. The government should enforce the relevant laws and rules if it is really interested in stopping the recurrence of motor launch accidents, in addition to taking efforts for strengthening the BIWTA's salvage operation capability.