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Lamma Shipwreck Ten Years | Survivor Zhao Bingquan seeks the truth for her deceased sister: I am still very sad at this moment

2022-09-29T03:11:38.304Z


"At this moment, I still feel so sad, so hurt... It's hard to describe with pen and ink, it's really hard." Zhao Bingquan, who worked as a newspaper editor, on the 11th National Day in 2012, 10 years ago, The vessel that boarded the Hong Kong Lights


"At this moment, I still feel so sad, so hurt... It's hard to describe with pen and ink, it's really hard." Zhao Bingquan, who worked as a newspaper editor, on the 11th National Day in 2012, 10 years ago, Board the Hong Kong Electric's vessel "Lamma No. 4" and go out to sea with your family to watch the National Day fireworks.

That night, he experienced a shipwreck. Although he survived the accident, his own experience of struggling to survive at the bottom of the sea, the memory of failing to save his sister in the accident, and the scars that never healed, the bloody scars, will be lost year after year. Digging, "Actually, I really want to forget about this incident."


Zhao Bingquan still has many knots in his heart about the shipwreck 10 years ago.

In the end, why did Lamma No. 4 sink so fast in just 118 seconds after being hit?

Why my sister got hooked on the bottom of the boat has always been a mystery.

After 10 years, the mystery that led to the death of a close relative remains unsolved, and the truth is always far away.

The staff of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry involved were reluctant to testify, and the court did not convene a coroner's court; the government went back on its word and refused to publish the independent investigation report.


Sadness, hatred, and guilt tormented him for 10 years, always persevering.

He spent 10 years looking for the truth, but he asked for relief and did not want to see the disaster repeated in Hong Kong.


I forgive him, the fault is all gone. Really, I can't explain it to my sister, I can't tell him what the real reason is, but still...it's hard I don't know... Survivor of the Lamma shipwreck, Zhao Bingquan

【One of the 10th Anniversary Series of Lamma Shipwreck】


Petition with two shipwrecked family members for a death hearing

After a lapse of 10 years, Zhao Bingquan and two family members of the Lamma shipwreck filed a petition with the High Court about the shipwreck, requesting a death hearing.

The family has spent 10 years tearing open the scars reluctantly every year, through different channels, in order to find out the real cause of death for the family - a disaster that cannot be summed up in four words "illegal killing".

We hope that we really know the cause and reason of the incident, and the explanation will be very fast, such a sinking boat, not...not a very thin sampan, but it is so sinking, the opposite is true. Oh, but the ship is sinking so quickly...a...a big ship that is eighty or ninety feet long...the survivor of the Lamma shipwreck, it is Zhao Bingquan

10 years ago on the National Day, Zhao Bingquan, his wife, daughter, sister and three friends boarded the "Lamma 4" of HK Electric to enjoy the National Day fireworks display. Soon after boarding, the tragedy happened.

Seven people boarded the boat and six returned to Lamma 4. The next day, they were hanged to see sister's body

"I didn't think about the boat for five minutes, and I heard a boom. I thought it would be strange that a boat would suddenly crash and bury." Before I could think about this bizarre scene, I was sitting on the deck of Lamma No. 4, hoping Zhao Bingquan, who was sitting in a favorable position on the boat to enjoy the fireworks, slipped under the iron bench of the boat after the collision, broke his right hand, and soon fell into the sea and was swept to the seabed.

After struggling several times, Zhao Bingquan was finally rescued by another ship, the "Lamma No. 2". His daughter, wife, and three friends were all there, but his sister was missing: "I really want to get down and rescue immediately... .. to save my sister, but I have already said... I can't jump down again. In fact, I was really surprised at the time, because when I got back, it was already... ah... when you Thinking that the married family is almost dead..."

The picture that night did not fade away with the years.

Zhao recalled that they went to the mortuary in the early morning to pat the door and were informed that they had not seen the body of their sister. The next day after the accident, the almost completely submerged Lamma No. 4 was lifted up, and the body of the sister was found hooked on the bottom of the Lamma No. 4. , perished in the sea.

Sadness, hate, guilt haunt him for 10 years

It has been 10 years since his sister's soul was broken in the ocean. Zhao Bingquan's right hand, which was broken in an accident, has healed, but the scene of sinking to the bottom of the water and the moment when his dead sister was killed are still vivid in his mind and cannot be erased from his heart.

After the incident, Zhao Bingquan was unable to sleep, and grief, hatred, and guilt haunted him for 10 years. "The head can't be erased for a moment...that is a moment of terror and fear." After 10 years, the shadow lingered, he stood When I saw the boat at the pier, I was still afraid: "Even if I were at the pier, I wouldn't dare to take it. It's already been done. I've been afraid for almost six years."

Well (stop) I was going to the pier. In fact, at that time... I saw a space called a sealed space, and there were some... Should I go to the side?

I'm going to escape, I'm going to... When it's time to escape, where do I go?

I can't think of it at that time... Survivor of the Lamma shipwreck, Zhao Bingquan

This memory, which he didn't want to remember, but came to his mind from time to time, haunted him for ten years, and every time he remembered it, his heart was cut like a knife.

After the shipwreck, Zhao was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and needed treatment. Even his two-year-old daughter had to see a psychologist, and her daughter has not forgotten her childhood memories.

It may be difficult for the outside world to understand why a group of family members insisted so hard. Zhao said, "Actually, I really want to forget about this incident!" The truth, he still has to be haunted by the truth of the shipwreck.

In 2015, the police submitted a more than 2,000-page "Investigation Report on the Death of the Lamma Shipwreck" to the coroner, which contained the statements of 91 witnesses, and concluded that a coroner's inquest should be held.

(File photo / Photo by Yu Junliang)

In fact, every time I pay homage to my sister, I tell her, my words: "I hope I can find the truth... that is, I hope to find the truth, or a real reason to find it, or announce it, or We know it, at least the family members know it, but there are so many different things... I really hope to tell him the truth, so it turns out to be the truth." Zhao Bingquan, survivor of the Lamma Sea Disaster

Government refuses to release internal investigation report, judiciary does not hold coroner's hearing

After the shipwreck that year, then-Secretary for Transport and Housing, Zhang Bingliang, promised that the internal investigation report conducted by the government "will never be made public".

Zhao Bingquan bluntly stated that the Hong Kong government once gave great hope to the families of the shipwrecks, and government officials shattered this hope after 10 years. "(Yes) We are not fair!"

Before 2020, the judiciary sent a letter to the family, stating that it had decided not to convene a coroner's hearing on the Lamma shipwreck. The Coroner's Court rarely directly ruled that the deceased was "unlawfully killed".

Some family members questioned that the practice was contrary to the recommendations of the police's death cause investigation report.

Zhao Bingquan denounced the judiciary's decision not to hold a coroner's hearing as "unjust".

(Photo by Zhang Haowei)

The journey is getting more and more difficult, and the journey is getting more and more lonely. Currently, the shipwreck family members who are filing an appeal side by side with Zhao, only the other two victims belong to Liang Shuling and Xu Zhisheng.

Zhao said that he could not explain to his sister for a day, and he could not give up for a day. He described the tragedy that he had to dig through the wound before he could tell the truth. Until one day the truth was revealed, he still had to continue to announce it to the outside world.

Tie!

Many people have already given up, or they are no longer fighting for it, what are they fighting for?

Let's talk about it... We need to move on, how about a chance for us to go back to our normal life?

Survivor of the Lamma shipwreck, Zhao Bingquan

The death of my sister involved many human negligence, and after ten years, the whole truth has not been obtained.

The reporter asked Zhao Bingquan about his motivation to persevere, but he casually said that he had put aside all his resentment, and only hoped that the tragedy that led to the separation of his two siblings would not happen again.

Zhao Bingquan still worships his deceased sister this year. For the past 10 years, every time he goes to the grave of his deceased sister, he hopes to get her blessing: "Actually, every year I want to say this sentence: I hope you will help me... Because I have said it for many years, I hope I can, first of all, I’m really relieved, I hope you’ll let me… In fact, I really want to forget about this, but I’ve told him all about it, I hope you can help me find the truth and don’t make the same mistakes again.”

▼Mourning the fifth anniversary of the Lamma shipwreck in 2017▼


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Source: hk1

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