No one is suggesting such tragedies do not occur elsewhere. The UK suffered the King's Cross Fire on 18 November 1987 and the Grenfell Tower Fire on 14 June 2017. Belgium experienced the Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse rail crossing disaster on 5 April 2016 and, as recently as 26 May 2026, a train collided with a school minibus at a level crossing in Buggenhout, killing four people. Accidents happen everywhere. The distinction is not that tragedy occurs, but how often the same types of tragedy continue to occur after the warnings have already been written in blood. Repeated fatalities and construction failures on Rama II Road, buses routinely plunging into ravines, overloaded trucks suffering brake failures, ferries and tour boats capsizing, these are not isolated incidents. They are recurring patterns which have persisted for years despite countless investigations, headlines and promises of reform. One incident is a tragedy. A second should be a wake-up call. By the third, fourth or fifth occurrence, it becomes increasingly difficult to blame fate, bad luck or unforeseeable circumstances. That is where many find themselves at the pit-face of cynicism. A single event is a warning. Repeated events signify systemic failure. When the same preventable causes continue to produce the same preventable deaths, the issue is no longer misfortune. It becomes incompetence, a lack of accountability and, ultimately, a degree of negligence that many would argue borders on the criminal. And mark these words - before the month is out - we'll have another 'tour-boat' over turn, a bus rolling down a ravine, children drowning in a village pond.... tragic - but preventable.
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