MERSING: Police are investigating whether the operators of two passenger boats involved in a collision here complied with licensing requirements and the standard operating procedure after the incident claimed two lives on Monday night.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk Ab Rahaman Arsad said investigators would check whether both operators had valid permits to carry passengers and whether they adhered to the stipulated operating hours.
“Besides obtaining statements from the survivors to assist in the investigation, we will record statements from various parties, including the rescue teams and those who first arrived at the scene,” he said after inspecting the boats involved in the collision at Kampung Pangkalan Batu here yesterday.
Comm Ab Rahaman said police were alerted at 8.15pm on Monday about the collision which happened about 800m from the Sungai Mersing jetty.
The two boats involved were the Sea Queen, which was returning from Pulau Besar, and Rawa Birds, which had just departed from the jetty for Pulau Rawa.
He said the Sea Queen was carrying six people while three people were onboard Rawa Birds when the collision occurred.
“The impact was severe, resulting in the death of the 38-year-old Sea Queen boat operator and a 32-year-old Malaysian male passenger,” he said.
Comm Ab Rahaman said seven other people were injured, with three receiving treatment at Hospital Mersing, three at Hospital Sultan Ismail and one at Hospital Pasir Gudang.
