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Discussions by world maritime administrations and organisations on probes into marine accidents will definitely improve the quality of investigations and may lead to the development of new standards and practices in enhancing maritime safety and preventing pollution, the Director of Marine, Mr Francis Liu, said today (June 11).
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Marine Accident Investigators' International Forum hosted by the Marine Department, Mr Liu noted that the event would provide a platform for marine accident investigators from all over the world to exchange views, experiences and lessons learnt, aiming at reducing accidents and enhancing co-operation in investigations.
Mr Liu pointed out that it is a fact of life that no matter what we do, accidents are still bound to happen. Besides making every effort and doing our utmost to prevent these occurrences, what we can do is consolidate the lessons learnt from the accidents and, by sharing them, provide food for thought for initiatives to minimise the recurrence of similar accidents.
"Even though we cannot entirely prevent accidents from happening, we can reduce casualties and damages to the minimum," he said.
"So communications among maritime administrations and organisations are important."
During the five-day forum, five important topics to be discussed are the use of voyage data recorder information, human factors, fishing vessel safety, training of investigators and fires aboard roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) ferries.
A total of 48 delegates from 26 maritime administrations and organisations will participate in the forum, being held at the Hong Kong InterContinental Grand Stanford Hotel. Delegates from Indonesia and the Macao Special Administrative Region will join as observers.
Ends/Monday, June 11, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:24
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