2 accountable for fatal boat capsizing sentenced

Two people have been sentenced to six years in jail by a local court for their roles in a boating capsizing in which 10 villagers lost their lives in Yuanyang county, central China's Henan province, on May 1.

Zhang Shengli and Wang Donghai, both villagers of the Zhangshuangjing Village in Yuanyang County, were given six-year jail term each on the charges of endangering public safety and acting with negligence, according to the verdict of the People's Court of Yuanyang county, made public on Sunday.

Investigations by the Henan Provincial Administration for Supervision over Safety in Workplaces said Sunday that Zhang Shengli, a farmer from Zhangshuangjing village, Yuanyang county, used an old wooden boat to carry 27 fellow villagers to watch cultural performances staged on the opposite bank of the Yellow River around 9 a.m. on May 1, the first day of the International Labor Day holiday.

While Zhang and his fellow villagers were crossing the river, the overloaded boat was flooded with water and capsized, dumping all those on board into the water.

Rescuers saved 13 village folks and found the bodies of 10 others. Another four villagers remained missing.

Joint probes show that the old wooden boat bought by Wang, a farmer, half a month before the accident, only had a loading capacity of 450 kg. And Zhang, the captain, failed to take any timely measures when he found water enter the boat through a hole on the deck.

Zhang's erroneous decisions, such as turning off the engine, eventually made the boat lose balance and overturn, the court ruled, concluding that Wang, the owner, and Zhang, who is not trained to drive an motorized boat, are jointly responsible for the fatal capsizing.

Wang is blamed for using a boat without proper qualification documents and for illegally operating ferry service in waters not open to navigation, while Zhang is convicted for illegally running the boat without a license and for erroneous operation of the ferry service.

Source: Xinhua