Safety: A pipeline or pipe dream

BANGKOK Three Thai government departments are responding to a spate of marine accidents in May involving tourists saying they will tighten safety standards and revisit regulations governing marine transport.

Three well-publicised boat accidents at tourist islands in South Thailand and Rayong province, two of them with fatalities,  rocked the comfort zone of the Ministry of Transport, the Marine Department, and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

Minister of Tourism and Sports, Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, commented during  TTM 2016, last week, that she was investigating each of the three cases to “understand what had gone wrong and what measure should be taken to improve safety.”

She is working with the other two government agencies to introduce measures that she hopes will reduce the appalling marine-related accident rate particularly at tourist islands.

Accidents gain publicity when they involve foreign tourists. The Samui accident involved a boat that was transferring passengers back to the island after a sightseeing trip to a marine national park. It capsized in rough waters killing four tourists as it passed a rocky headland just a short distance from the bay’s jetties.

A few days later two tourist boats collided near Phi Phi Island killing two tourists.  The third accident involved a ferry returning from a music festival on Samet Island that rammed a cargo vessel at anchor. Thirty passengers were injured with no fatalities.

A check of a website, Farang Deaths, that chronicles deaths of expatriate and tourists in Thailand indicates there were 151 cases so far this year.  The site identified 22 cases of drowning  of which 3 were swimming pool deaths  and the balance at sea. Road accident deaths stood at 23 and homicides at nine.

Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports understands the links between a safe environment and building a quality tourism experience for the country’s 29.8 million visitors.

But she faces an uphill task convincing other government agencies to sing off the same hymn sheet and put aside departmental rivalries to make resorts safer.

A press release issued by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Thursday, on behalf of the ministries, stated that “preventative measures and new regulations from the Marine Department are now in the pipeline.”

The media release did not elaborate on the pipeline’s timeframe or how the proposed measures would be policed and funded.

New measures in the pipeline:

Establishing alcohol and drug checks for boat crew before and after trips;

Introducing marine speed limits based on engine size;

GPS devices to be installed on all boats that carry more than 12 passengers;

CCTV cameras to be installed at every port.

The ministries are backing the introduction of stiffer penalties and even suspension of services. There are already regulations in place that boat passengers must wear life jackets during the trip.

Port officials are supposed to check operators’ licences and the number of passenger boarding a boat before it departs.

Boat owners must abide by port warnings, usually red or green flags, that signal weather conditions.

Boat owners are obliged to make copies of the passenger’s passport or  ID card before the boat departs.

Current regulations are rarely enforced and boat owners claim they as unnecessary and cumbersome.

Travel industry executives have posted comments on the TTR Weekly that identify the need to provide professional training for boat captains and crew with a proper certification programme in place.

The pipeline proposes that new testing procedures for anyone applying for a boat operator’s licence that would need to be renewed and reviewed every five years.