I knew there was a reason why I never took one of those overloaded ferries out to KohLan.

 

Of course I am not sure the speedboats that I took are much safer.  

 

Some are held together with spit and glue.

 

But its a much shorter trip , so less time for something to go wrong.

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/378099/pattaya-ferry-confesses-to-drug-use

The story (in the photo caption) mentions that there were about 200 people on board that boat.  My god, regardless of the idiocy of being high on drugs while operating such a vessel, no person in their right mind would ever put more than 40-50 people on one of those boats.  Look at the photo and just try imagining jamming 200 people aboard!

 

I first rode one of the ferries to Koh Larn around 2000 and I'd guess there were 30-40 people aboard the boat (which looked the same as the boat that's pictured in the news story.  While cruising out there, I wandered around the boat and began to notice that I didn't see any life jackets.  So, I wandered some more specifically looking for life jackets.  Guess how many I found......none (if they had any on board, they were locked away somewhere I couldn't get access to)!

Unfortunate reminder that Thailand is still only a developing country with corresponding lax standards enforcements.

 

It's amazing that catastrophe of such magnitude resulted in relatively few casualties, each loss of life is tragic but it could be much worse