Hundreds of people involved in boat mishaps in three years

By HEZRON KISING
More than 800 people were involved in various boat mishaps over the past three years, according to the National Maritime Safety Authority.
The statistics, revealed during the recent domestic ship safety forum in Port Moresby, show that 872 people were involved in boat mishaps.
Out of these, 824 were rescued, 17 people received medical evacuation at the sea, 17 were missing, and 14 people were confirmed dead. The report indicated that most cases, 390, involved vessels running aground, and from those
386 people were rescued and four died.
“Man overboard” and “medevac” incidents had the second-highest number of deceased – three each.
Casevac (casualty evacuation) reported two deaths, while fire onboard vessels and dead crewmen incidents reported single deaths each.
The NMSA highlighted that all those incidents happened because of the different challenges and issues faced by domestic ships and vessels in PNG.
These challenges include the high cost of services and products, the lack of in-country technical expertise, financial constraints, poorly trained human resources, manpower shortage due to financial constraints and the lack of government support.
The NMSA approaches to address these issues, recommendations and alternative way forward have been tabled in the forum for government agencies and responsible stakeholders to take on to prevent future accidents.
The deputy director of geoscience energy and maritime division of the South Pacific Council, Thierry Nervale, challenged all maritime agencies in the region to achieve higher safety standards in domestic shipping by reducing the number of unseaworthy vessels and ferries.
He also highlighted that unqualified crew, the quality of ferries, overloading and overcrowding on ships were contributing factors to ship mishaps.