Blogfest 23 – Scores Feared Dead in Sierra Leone Ferry Accident

Here is another reason why we have codes to follow in the U.S. Overcrowded trains, planes, automobiles, and boats in other Countries cause accidents and make other accidents worse just by the shear volume of occupants.

DAKAR, Senegal — Scores of schoolchildren and their parents on their way to start the new school year were feared drowned after a packed ferry sank off the coast of Sierra Leone, officials said Thursday.

The boat went down in a storm Tuesday night southeast of the capital, Freetown, and it was unclear how many people were on board. A statement by the country’s military spoke of the boat’s “overloaded capacity of over 250 passengers” when it foundered. It said that 40 had been rescued, and that “over 10 corpses have been discovered so far.”

Sierra Leone’s deputy transport minister, Osmond Hanciles, agreed that the wooden boat sank “because of the overloading,” adding that about 40 bodies had been recovered.

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