The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has blamed the Ogbaru boat mishap in Anambara State on mechanical and human errors
\nNIWA said the mishap could have been averted, if the basic safety guidelines of wearing life jackets and avoiding overloading were adhered to,
\nSpokesman, NIWA, Malam Jibril Darda\u2019u, stated\u00a0 this to newsmen while reacting to the sad incident that claimed over 10 lives.
\n\u201cIt is with shock and sadness that NIWA commiserates with the people and government of Anambra over the mishap at Umnnakwo, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra, which consumed 10 lives.
\n\u201cThe boat mishap was described as a mechanical and human error\u201d, he stated.
\nDarda\u2019u further stated that a report from NIWA\u2019s office in Onitsha, Anambra State, showed that the wooden boat involved in the accident had 48 passengers on board when it took off.
\nBut only one of the 48 occupants of the boat wore a life jacket and\u00a0 survived the accident, he added.
\n\u201cAt a point, the outboard engine developed a mechanical fault and could not restart.
\n\u201cAll efforts by the captain of the boat to restart the engine proved abortive and at that point, the wave of the river started to pull the boat backward towards a bridge linking Umunnakwo and Ossomala.
\n\u201cSome of the passengers who could swim jumped into the river for safety, while others tried to push the boat away from the bridge.
\n\u201cThose that could not swim were trapped in the boat and out of fear, they all moved to one side of the boat.
\n\u201cAnd as soon as the boat collided with the bridge, it capsized leaving 10 women and children dead.
\n\u201cThirty-eight of the passengers, including five children were rescued alive,\u2019\u2019 Darda\u2019u stated.
\nDarda\u2019u stressed that NIWA had continually distributed free life jackets to boat operators and Associations in 23 area offices nationwide.
\nThe Authority, he said, also conducts sensitisation campaigns and training for boat operators and waterways users on the importance of adhering to safety guidelines, he stated.
\nDarda\u2019u also noted that in addition, NIWA regularly patrolled waterways to effect quick response in the event of emergencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has blamed the Ogbaru boat mishap in Anambara State on mechanical and human errors NIWA said the mishap could have been averted, if the basic safety guidelines of wearing life jackets and avoiding overloading were adhered to, Spokesman, NIWA, Malam Jibril Darda\u2019u, stated\u00a0 this to newsmen while reacting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maritime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306318,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306310\/revisions\/306318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}