VietNamNet Bridge - The deadly Din Ky Restaurant boat sinking has caused a public uproar as evidenced in the local media.

Din Ky boat.

The accident that took 16 lives in a birthday party while the vessel was cruising on the Saigon River at night on May 20 is yet another warning of the widespread lack of responsibility on the part of boat owners and relevant authorities.

The latest event in Binh Duong Province is a sad reminder of the February 17 Halong Bay tour boat sinking that killed 11 foreign tourists, along with their Vietnamese tour guide, and two other non-fatal tour boat accidents this year.

What is common about those tour boat accidents? That’s human error. The Din Ky boat manager allowed an unlicensed pilot to take the helm of the wooden double-decker vessel with scores of people on board including a boy who together with his parents, five-year-old sister, relatives and friends was celebrating his third birthday. All of his loved ones but his dad died. What a tragedy! As for the Halong Bay boat accident, the chief mechanic forgot closing the cooling system valves, thus letting seawater make its way into the vessel while at rest during the night. 

Those fatal human errors are obvious since the safety of tour boat services has long gone unscrutinized, if not ignored. It’s not at all difficult to detect unsafe tour boats in service. Din Ky Cau Ngang, the business that owns the ill-fated boat in Binh Duong Province, was still putting the boat in use though its registration license expired in January this year and the pilot had no license, and operating a pier that had not been approved.

The findings in the inspections done last year by the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration are actually shocking. Tran Van Cuu, head of the administration, told the online newspaper VnExpress that there were 553,000 pilots nationwide last year but just around 157,000 of them gained professional certification.

In March, Din Ky Cau Ngang was fined VND1.5 million by the police for using the unlicensed pier and even ordered the enterprise to suspend it immediately. Moreover, the river area where the pier is located has rip currents, so the local authorities disallow construction of harbors around there. What the business did was undoubtedly a contempt for the rule of law. That’s why the business owner, Chau Hoan Tam, has taken responsibility for the accident but put the blame on the restaurant boat manager who he said had forgotten re-registering with the authorities.

But why could such violations have been committed in broad daylight? 

While the Din Ky floating restaurant accident was unfolding, a Ministry of Transport working group comprising senior officials from the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration, Vietnam Register and the Traffic Safety Department swiftly came to Binh Duong Province to look into what had gone wrong.

What has been revealed is a legal vacuum which is believed to have resulted in the authorities pointing the finger, only to try to dodge responsibility.

Cao Kim Phung, deputy head of the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration, was quoted by Phap Luat newspaper as saying that there are no rules on operations of restaurant boats and that the prevailing rules just govern passenger boats, not those both transporting tourists and providing eatery services. Despite the lack of regulations, many restaurant boats can be found not only in Binh Duong but also HCMC, Can Tho and Hanoi, among others. Who licensed them?

Do Thanh Tam, chairman of Thuan An Municipality, where Din Ky Cau Ngang is based, said the Saigon River fell under the management of the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration, so the local authority was not aware of what agency had licensed the Din Ky Restaurant boat. Pointing this out means he effectively passed the blame to someone else.

Binh Duong Province’s Department of Transport has also tried to duck the blame. According to Phap Luat, a department official said the department could not stop vessels operating in the Saigon River because the river is managed by the Vietnam Maritime Administration. The department just oversees harbors along the river.

Though acknowledging that the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration is responsible for oversight of the Saigon River, the chief inspector of this administration, Pham Bach Duong, said in Phap Luat that multiple forces ranging from the administration’s inspectorate to the provincial Departments of Transport’s inspectors and the traffic police all have authority to impose sanctions on violators.

Duong also cited the lack of human resources as a reason for failure to supervise inland waterways. “Inspectors at the river waterway bureau number a mere 70 but they are in charge of waterways nationwide.” Therefore, he stressed, local authorities are in a better position to monitor the waterways that pass through their provinces. “It’s incorrect to say the Departments of Transport have no right to impose sanctions.”

Given the murky authorization of waterway administration, the blame game will go on forever. To stop this, authorization should be made transparent. The head of an agency in charge of a certain field should be the first to be held responsible whenever an accident happens to their field, according to a Saigon Tiep Thi article authored by Nguyen Ngoc Dien. Yes, this is the only way to force authorities to be more responsible for preventing similar heart-rending disasters from happening, and to shear the finger-pointing tactic.

Source: SGT