Hong Kong court rejects coroner’s inquest bid into 2012 Lamma ferry crash that killed 39 people
- No ‘sufficient evidence’ to persuade court inquest should be held, High Court Justice Russell Coleman says
- Families of loved ones who died in disaster express disappointment over the ruling
Families of passengers who died in one of Hong Kong’s worst maritime disasters have lost a bid to force the government into disclosing further details of its investigation into the tragedy, after the High Court ruled a coroner’s inquest into the 39 fatalities was not in the public interest.
In a written judgment on Thursday, High Court Justice Russell Coleman said no “sufficient evidence” existed to persuade him an inquest should be held, although it was understandable the families would hope to “trace every detail of how their loved ones met their death”.
Relatives of the victims expressed their disappointment over the ruling, which they hoped would shed more light on exactly what happened on the night of October 1, 2012, when a collision between two ferries threw more than 120 passengers into the frigid, dark waters off of Lamma Island.
The Transport and Housing Bureau conducted a comprehensive investigation into the tragedy in 2014, but the report was never released in full.
“We feel there is more truth that could be disclosed if there is an inquest,” said Chiu Bing-chuen, whose older sister, Chiu Siu-king, was killed in the incident. “The details of the incident made known so far are not enough.”
The Lamma IV, had set out to view the National Day fireworks display with 124 passengers on board when it was struck on the port side by the Sea Smooth, operated by Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry. While the damaged Sea Smooth continued on to Yung Shue Wan, the other vessel sank within minutes, partly due to design flaws.
Thirty-nine people, including eight children, died, and 92 passengers were injured in the city’s worst maritime disaster since 1971, when a ferry sank during a typhoon, claiming 88 lives.
The family members of four victims had filed the Coroner’s Court inquest application in June, saying they hoped to “find the last piece of the puzzle in this tragedy”. During a hearing in September, the families said an independent commission had missed areas of concern when investigating the incident and that new evidence had since emerged from a police probe.
The disaster was linked to “suspected criminality” and some 17 unnamed officials were accused of misconduct in the executive summary of an internal investigation report by the Transport and Housing Bureau released in 2014.
In 2013, a separate commission of inquiry found the Marine Department’s inspectors had missed several chances to spot that the doomed Lamma IV did not have a watertight bulkhead door stipulated in its design, which led to the vessel sinking more quickly. Other safety shortcomings also came to light, including a lack of life jackets for children.
Relatives of victims have since demanded the bureau’s report be released in full, and that an inquest be held. But in 2020, the Coroner’s Court told them it would not be investigating the crash. The Department of Justice also decided against initiating further prosecutions.
In his ruling, Coleman said the “ultimate yardstick” in determining whether an inquest was needed was public interest, but most of the details of the disaster had been “substantively covered” in the commission of inquiry and in criminal proceedings.
“The [commission] examined not only the immediate cause – the collision – but also the ‘structural’ causes rooted in the design and equipment on board the vessel which could be traced back to as far as 1994, when the vessel was designed and constructed,” he said.
“The facts revealed by the [inquiry] – and to some extent by the criminal proceedings – are sufficient to enable the conclusion … that the deceased died by unlawful killing and the medical cause was drowning.”
October 1, 2012: Deadly ferry crash off Hong Kong’s Lamma Island kills 39
Details identifying “which individual officers [in the Marine Department] were responsible for which mistakes” were not in the public interest, he said.
The inquest application was filed by Leung Suk-ling, Chiu Bing-chuen and Tsui Chi-sing, the family members of four passengers who died. It was signed by two survivors and 23 family members of the victims.
Chiu, also a survivor of the disaster, said after the ruling he believed finding out more about the vessel inspection carried out by the Marine Department and the construction of the ferry was in the public interest.
Solicitor and former opposition lawmaker James To Kun-sun, who has been supporting victims’ families, said the relatives had lost a chance to question the evidence presented in the reports by the commission and police.
To and Chiu said the family members would study the ruling with their lawyers before deciding whether they should lodge an appeal in a higher court.
Four people – the two vessels’ captains, a ship inspector and a Marine Department assistant director – were ultimately sentenced to jail terms ranging from 4½ months to eight years on various charges, including manslaughter, endangering the safety of others at sea, misconduct in public office and perjury.
Last year, the city’s then-leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, said it was not appropriate to make public the full internal report conducted by the transport bureau, as it contained a significant amount of personal data.
Legislator Gary Zhang Xinyu said he had proposed to the Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung during an ante chamber exchange session last month that relatives should be allowed to have access to the full report. Zhang quoted Lam as replying that “we should look ahead”.
Zhang, who was responding to calls for assistance by the victims’ relatives, said at the time he would continue to follow up the matter.
