The death toll from a ferry that capsized in the central Philippines has risen to 61, the coast guard said yesterday, indicating that the vessel was overloaded.
Whether the ferry was carrying too many people is to be part of an investigation into last week’s disaster off the city of Ormoc, which has seen the boat’s owner and crew charged with murder.
Coast guard figures showed that 61 people died when the wooden Kim Nirvana capsized, with at least 145 people listed as survivors.
This would mean at least 206 people were on board, exceeding the 194 passengers and crew the boat was authorized to carry.
HEAVY CARGO
The heavy cargo the ferry was transporting might also have played a role, authorities have said.
“The number of bodies is more than we expected,” regional coast guard chief Captain Pedro Tinampay said, refusing to speculate how many might still be missing.
Only 173 passengers and 16 crew were listed on the boat’s manifest.
RECKLESS BEHAVIOR
The crew have been accused of reckless behavior, with an initial police investigation and interviews with survivors indicating the vessel turned abruptly causing it to capsize.
The police investigation is separate from a coast guard inquiry, which is to primarily determine the cause of the mishap. However, the coast guard might also recommend criminal and administrative charges.
BURIAL
A coast guard search and rescue vessel yesterday transported the bodies of 42 residents of Camotes — where the ferry had been heading — back to their island home for burial.
Relatives watched gravely as rescue personnel carried dozens of white coffins onto the ship.
The Kim Nirvana, which has been lifted out of the water by a crane, lay on a ramp in the background.
SACKS OF CEMENT
As well as passengers, the boat had also been transporting sacks of cement, rice and fertilizer, which would have weighed as much as 7,500kg.
Poorly maintained, loosely regulated ferries form the backbone of maritime travel in the Philippines, a sprawling archipelago of 100 million people.
Frequent accidents involving overloaded ferries in recent decades have claimed thousands of lives, including the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster on Dec. 20, 1987 when the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker off the central island of Mindoro, killing more than 4,300 people.
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