Collisions between ferries and cargo ships ‘highly likely’

In October 2012 a boat packed with revelers on a long holiday weekend collided with a ferry near Lamma Island and sank, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens

Academic and former observatory director Lam Chiu-ying has criticized a confidential report commissioned by the Hong Kong Airport Authority assessing the risk of marine traffic accidents for failing to take into account the number of vessels sailing through Hong Kong waters.
The report on the risk of marine traffic accidents, after a large area of water is reclaimed for the proposed third airport runway, has underestimated the number and scale of potential accidents, declared Lam.
The report states that the estimated number of accidents would increase at a rate of one per year after the reclamation, rising to 37 accidents per year by 2030.
Lam said after the reclamation is completed, the width of Urmston Road, a major marine passage between Lantau and Tuen Mun, would shrink to half its current size, while the number of vessels sailing through the area would continue to grow, including ferries and heavy cargo ships sailing between Hong Kong, Macau and the Pearl River Delta. This suggests that the reclamation would make large-scale accidents such as collisions between passenger ferries and cargo ships “highly likely”.
“I’m very disappointed,” Lam said. “I’ve raised the errors with the government several times, but they brushed them aside as mere opinions instead of statements based on scientific grounds.”