TSU, (Japan): (Bernama-Kyodo) The navigator of a cargo ship that collided with a fishing boat in central Japan and left two people dead was arrested Saturday (Feb 21) for professional negligence, a local coast guard office said, Kyodo News reported.
Hanon Sugimoto, 21, has admitted that she was at the helm of the 499-tonne, 71-metre cargo vessel at the time of the collision on Friday afternoon, according to the coast guard office in Toba, Mie Prefecture.
She was alone on the bridge when the vessel with a crew of six, which was heading to the western Japan city of Kurashiki without any cargo, hit the side of the 16-tonne fishing boat that was anchored with 13 people aboard, it said.
An 84-year-old man and a 67-year-old man on the fishing boat, both from Matsusaka in Mie, drowned, while its captain and the 10 other passengers sustained injuries. - Bernama-Kyodo
