What can be done to help those suffering from ship accidents?

What can be done to help those suffering from ship accident?
Improving technologies for them？
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News：
AP reports that fatal boat accidents are common in Myanmar, a poor country with rudimentary transport and weakly-enforced safety regulations. Vessels ferrying people along the country’s coastline and rivers are often dangerously overcrowded, and accidents can have staggering death tolls.

 

The cited news report says it all. Eliminate all of the flaws listed above and the number of accidents will drop.

 

How about ship building skills?

 

Building skills is correct but, what about training for the skipper and the crew, more responsibility and less greed?.

 

A vast majority of accidents seem to be attributable to human factor, which can be traced back to poor seamenship education and lax enforcement of tecnical rules and regulations.
You can build the best ship in the world, but once it is overloaded and/or improperly handled all safety improvements have gone wasted.

 

daiquiri is correct. Overloading of ferry/transport boats is a chronic problem in the developing world. There are multiple factors to blame.

1. Owners/operators of these boats overload them. This is a VERY FOOLISH decision that is equivalent to premeditated murder.

2. Improper operation in poor weather. An overloaded boat in a storm cannot tolerate any extra movement and is a disaster waiting to happen.

3. Modification and improper maintenance of boats (adding extra decks, broken bilge pumps, damaged or missing life vests, etc. etc.).

4. Weak/non-existent law enforcement, lack of coast guard inspections.

The vast majority of accidents are attributed to at least one of these items and are solely the responsibility of the owner of the boat in my opinion. The nations that allow this also often have weak law enforcement so the politicians are also to blame.

If you ask me it doesn't take much to improve the situation. At the end of the day it's all about being honest and respectful to your fellow human beings. Boat operators and governments that allow these conditions are 100% responsible. Partial blame can be given to passengers too. NEVER get on a boat that is overloaded, poorly maintained or lacks sufficient life vests for all passengers.

 

We're talking third world countries here, where economies are depressed across the board, and neither governments, small businesses, or individuals can afford the luxury of "govt certified safe" transport, so taking chances is the order of the day.
People simply do what they have to do to get from point a to b, and it is a known fact that there is risk involved.
It wasn't so many years ago that getting to the west coast of America was a big gamble.

 

When the value of human life, is more than the necessary education, training and regulation or regulatory requirements demand, then things will change. It's all about how much things cost. Simply put in most of these countries, there's little recourse for wrongful harm, death or damages awards in their judicial systems. If this suddenly rises and the cost of people dieing goes up dramatically, then the folks with the money to afford building and operating things that can harm or kill people, will have no choice but to make a simple business decision about protecting their investments (making them safer).

What surprises me most, is how many centuries will it take, before these third world countries figure out what history has previously taught, the rest of the world. It's not like they don't know, as it's still engineering and they know darn right well what is necessary in first world countries, but elect to buckle to their employer's desires to get it done as cheaply and quickly as possible, knowing people will die as a result.

 

Let me state the following point of view. People in Third World countries are not stupid or murderers. They are as corrupt, ambitious, and selfish as we are. The problem, perhaps, is that States are inoperative and control systems are very small or nonexistent. That, perhaps, is also the fault of the first world countries. They, little by little, will come out of their miseries but with our help they would leave much more quickly. But it is not something that we as individuals can achieve. They must be institutionalized aids. Just my opinion.

 

I agree with part of that TANSL, though much of the problem is third world nations don't know what they're missing. These countries haven't seen the very freedoms we take for granted here, so experience an "ignorance is bliss" syndrome. In this age of mass communications and social media, there are plenty of folks in third world countries that are aware of the changes necessary, but these same folks are those that also spend the money for these projects. Since they know what these things will cost, they'll simply wait until the masses insist, which is value based concern on both parts. It's hard to understand why some will not fight for these freedoms, but when you've never been exposed to them or enjoyed these personal liberties, it's difficult to comprehend why you might need them.