10 Laotian children drown after ferry sinks in Nam Ngum river

[webfact]

10 Laotian children drown after ferry sinks in Nam Ngum river

VIENTIANE: -- Laotian and Thai divers in Nong Khai province continued Wednesday morning to search for 10 Laotian students after they went missing when an overcrowded ferry sank into the Nam Ngum river yesterday morning.

The ferry with about 40 passengers, including the students aging 10 to 11-years-old, was operating shuttle service from the Laotian bank at Ban Nawong pier outside Vientiane to Nong Khai side when it sank at about 7.30 am yesterday.

Most passengers who are adult, included the teacher of the students survived by swimming safely to the river bank, except 10 small students comprising eight girls and two boys.

Vientiane authorities sought help from Thai authorities to search for the missing children.

A dozen of divers from the Navy, police and charity foundations joined Laotian divers to search but until dark, they couldn’t find any of the victims.

The joint search and rescue operation was supervised by Vientiane deputy governor, and watched by over a hundred Laotians and Thais on both banks of the river.

The search yesterday was called off when night fell.

The search began this morning with Thai patrol boats joined in to patrol the Nam Ngum which is a branch of Mekong river looking for survivors.

But authorities reported difficulties as the current is very strong.

The students were brought by their teacher to sit for entrance examination to Mor 1 level education at Ban Takobhai school in Nong Khai.

The owner of the ferry was arrested by Laotian authorities on charge of recklessness.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/10-laotian-children-drown-after-ferry-sinks-in-nam-ngum-river


-- Thai PBS 2015-05-27

[z42]

Just dreadful news. Regardless of fault this is just a terrible tragedy. Heart goes out to the families of all victims

[Peabody]

RIP.

The deadly triumvirate. How many times must we read Thailand-overcrowded-deaths in the same sentence?

[Tomtomtom69]

RIP.

The deadly triumvirate. How many times must we read Thailand-overcrowded-deaths in the same sentence?

Well this is kind of Laos rather than Thailand. In many ways things are even worse over there due to even poorer education and training, far poorer infrastructure, maintenance of vehicles etc. than on the Thai side. Thailand is like 30 years ahead of Laos in almost every respect, even it has a long way to go but still.

[Peabody]

RIP.

The deadly triumvirate. How many times must we read Thailand-overcrowded-deaths in the same sentence?

Well this is kind of Laos rather than Thailand. In many ways things are even worse over there due to even poorer education and training, far poorer infrastructure, maintenance of vehicles etc. than on the Thai side. Thailand is like 30 years ahead of Laos in almost every respect, even it has a long way to go but still.

True. Was too lazy to edit

[phil2407]

I've still never understood why for school children in Thailand and other Asian nations it is not mandatory or even part of the curriculum to teach the kids how to swim - hope they find the kids alive but doubtful ?

[kalbz]

Again, i think it's the problem of Asian systems not to teach swimming lessons at school. 10s of thousands of children die each in Asia year because they don't know how to swim. It should be mandatory at school, as it is in many western countries. It totally breaks my heart. Every time i read these articles i wish i was in the water with these kids to at least save one or two lives. They reach out in their dying moments, but no one is there. So sad & so preventable.

[hgma]

I have been on this place were the 'ferry's' take off several times, and always wondered why a bridge was never build.........outright dangerous crossing, the currents are so strong.

Our thoughts and Prayers are with the parents.family's and friends of the missing children,what a tragedy.

HGMA + Family.

[maidee]

commen sense would say, learn to swim before you go onto the water?

boats can sink ...

if your plane crashed, you die anyway , so no need to learn to fly

[nahkit]

I've still never understood why for school children in Thailand and other Asian nations it is not mandatory or even part of the curriculum to teach the kids how to swim - hope they find the kids alive but doubtful ?

Because there are very few places available where they could teach them safely.

[Tomtomtom69]

commen sense would say, learn to swim before you go onto the water?

boats can sink ...

if your plane crashed, you die anyway , so no need to learn to fly

That doesn't make any sense. Logically there is a far greater chance of surviving a boat sinking event if you know how to swim. If your plane crash analogy assumes a plane that falls out of the sky or some other catastrophic event that leads to a non-survivable crash, well nothing you can do can save you but such incidents are fortunately extremely rare. On the other hand, sinking boats, kids falling into water etc. kill thousands of children worldwide each year and are largely survivable incidents if they know how to swim. So they are largely preventable.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

[hgma]

Most children around the world die when panicking in the water, NOT because they can't swim properly,

The dog/cat crawll can bring them ashore, like most of the other children crawled ashore.

Panick is the main killer together with loads, clothes,bags shoes etc........

Another factor in this case was adults panicking on shore, not able to jump in and rescue.

Although there were still locals risking their own lives to get kids ashore.......

May the deseased all find their resting place in peace and harmony!

HGMA