Monday, November 26, 2007

Dragon Boat Accident

First I would like to give my sympathies to the families of the 5 men who died in the sad accident in Phnom Pehn. For those people who do not know, Singapore sent a Dragon Boat team to Cambodia but an accident caused the boat to capsized and the loss of 5 members.

The remaining 17 members of the team had returned to Singapore. In Singapore, a lot fingers are pointing at the lack of safety in the race. Most are accusing the organisers of the race of ignoring safety by not requiring the teams to have life-jackets on.

I personally don't think this is fair for the following reasons.
1) There's no requirements internationally for life jackets.
2) The dragon boat racers are all strong swimmers (I believe one of them is a navy diver), if they cannot get out of the current on their own, no one can be sure a life jacket will definitely save them.
3) This is an unforeseen accident; in the Singapore Dragon Boat Association’s 20 years history, there's never been a single fatality.

Is it truly fair to blame the Cambodians organisers for such an unfortunate and unforeseeable accident? I don't think so.

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