All at sea

Nazery Khalid, of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia, wonders how many more accidents involving passenger ferries will have to occur before something concrete is done to prevent them

Hardly a month – or is it a week these days? – goes by without us hearing news about yet another ferry sinking somewhere. It is a reflection of the sad and sorry state of affairs in the passenger ferry sector that when such news breaks, we hardly bat an eyelid and just shrug it off. We have almost become immune to deaths of passengers of overloaded, poorly maintained and less than seaworthy ferries capsizing.