New information has been revealed concerning a yacht accident that occurred on 4th of April, the final day of the Tomb-Sweeping holiday, on Lake Tai, Jiangsu causing the deaths of four people. The investigation came to the conclusion that fault lies with the skipper, who was drunk at the time of the incident.
The accident happened in the city of Suzhou and claimed the lives of three college students from Shanghai Jiaotong University as well as their tour guide and left another four people injured. The cause was a cable running between two cargo ships on Lake Tai. While the main person responsible for the accident was the drunk skipper, who hit the cable with the yacht trying to race through the gap between the two ships, the captains of the cargo ships have also been blamed. All three remain in police custody.
After the accident a blood test exposed the skipper Feng Ke’er, whose alcohol blood content was almost three times higher than limits imposed by local navigating regulations. At a ratio of 54 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, Feng had passed the Chinese limit of 20 mg by far. Interestingly, the maximum limit for boating in the UK is four times higher, at 80 mg per 100 ml, making Chinese regulations seem quite strict. Although, in light of accidents such as these, one can see the authorities’ point.
What makes the situation worse, is a video circulating the internet which clearly shows the injured students realising that two of their companions are missing and must have fallen into the water. However, the skipper refused to return to the accident site to look for the two students, claiming that no one was missing. While the injured were rushed off to the hospital, the two remaining bodies were not found until the next afternoon.
