沉船事故暴露韓國追求效益不顧安全的文化弊端
2014年04月23日
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
韓國珍島——隨着海軍潛水員找回數十名青少年的遺體，韓國民眾已經對該國追求經濟效益、忽視安全防護措施的傾向產生了一種蔓延全國的絕望情緒。這些青少年乘坐的渡輪已經沉沒，他們是在等待渡輪獲救時溺亡的。
人們發現了越來越多可能導致渡輪災難的錯誤行為，有鑒於此，海事專家、媒體以及在社交媒體上發泄不滿的普通民眾已經開始質疑他們所說的失當安全措施，以及往往流於鬆懈的商業活動監管。
- 檢視大圖Jean Chung for The New York Times一名失蹤乘客的母親讓失蹤人員的另一名親屬看自己女兒的照片。大多數失蹤乘客是來自檀園高中的學生。
周二，一名反對派議員公布的數據顯示，這艘渡輪的運載量是其建議載貨極限的三倍，但目前尚不清楚，這會不會是導致船體傾覆的因素之一。
除此之外，一直在猛烈批評船員的韓國總統朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)也指出，監管機構對航運商的縱容可能在一定程度上導致了這場災難，這是韓國和平時期最慘痛的災難之一。與此同時，韓國總理列出了一些本可以通過更好監管得到解決的具體問題，比如公司涉嫌為增加卧艙數目對渡輪進行了改造，由此導致渡輪頭重腳輕，容易傾覆。
韓國主要報紙反映了越來越強烈的憤怒及震驚情緒，針對的則是它們所稱的監管乏力。《中央日報》(JoongAng)一篇社論的標題是，「我們是一個安全社會還是三流民族？」(Are we a safe society or a third-rate people)《東亞日報》(Dong-A)則發表了一篇題為「哭泣吧，韓國」(Cry Korea)的社論，文章認為，朴槿惠應該信守競選承諾，打造一個「注重安全的政府」。
多年以來，韓國人一直將自己的祖國稱為「多難之國」，因為人們認為，之前的一系列事故至少部分歸咎於監管乏力，或是當局對安全問題漫不經心的態度，或是兩個因素的共同作用。
1993年，韓亞航空公司(Asiana Airlines)的一架飛機撞上一座小山，導致68名乘客死亡，那座小山距離渡輪事故發生地不遠。同年晚些時候，一艘超載的渡輪沉沒，致使292人遇難。1994年，首爾的一座大橋倒塌，導致32人死亡。1995年，101人在瓦斯爆炸事件中遇難。同年，首爾一家百貨商店的店主違反建築安全規範，在屋頂增建游泳池，最終導致受損的建築發生倒塌，501人因此喪命。兩年後，大韓航空(Korean Airlines)的一架飛機在關島墜毀，致使228人遇難。
2003年，人為縱火引發地鐵火災，導致192人喪生，自此之後，韓國再沒有出現有關大規模災難的報告，似乎已經擺脫了詛咒，並且已經摒棄了「快點、快點」的文化——可粗略解釋為喜歡走捷徑，迅速完成工作的傾向。
看到自己的國家在解決安全問題方面還有很長的路要走，很多韓國人都表示了羞愧，由此加劇了全國民眾自上周三事故發生以來的悲痛及憤怒情緒。
人們對船員在撤離過程中的明顯失誤及他們遺棄「歲月號」(Sewol)渡輪的行為感到非常憤怒，因為渡輪沉沒時，仍有很多人被困在船內。周二，調查人員稱首先告知當局渡輪遇到麻煩的並不是船員，人們的不滿情緒進一步加劇。調查人員稱，第一個電話是一名高中生撥打的，電話打給了警方。
韓國國家聯合通訊社(Yonhap)報道稱，這名學生當時說，「救救我們！我們在一艘船上，我覺得船正在下沉。」這名姓崔(Choi)的男生目前下落不明。
截至周二晚間，死亡人數已升至121人，仍有181人失蹤。
分析人士表示，這起渡輪事故似乎可以提醒人們，韓國雖然成為了高科技經濟強國，憑藉三星(Samsung)智能手機席捲了全球市場，但卻沒有擺脫易於接受寬鬆的監管執法的習慣。專家表示，由於執法不嚴的文化根深蒂固，政府官員已經把公共安全方面的崗位當成了二流工作。
在韓國，每年有逾3.1萬人死於事故，其中有3000人是學生，因事故死亡的人數佔到了韓國年死亡總數的12.8%，這一比例在主要發達國家中是最高的。
這些事故五花八門，有車禍也有火災，目前還不清楚，這些事故在多大程度上應歸咎於對安全缺乏關注。不過，競爭極為激烈的韓國社會有一項共識，即衡量成功的標準往往是能以多快的速度和多低的成本完成一項工作，為遵守規章花費過多的時間和資源，有時會被視為減小競爭優勢的做法。
韓國美國商會(American Chamber of Commerce in Korea)會員、《在韓國經商》(Doing Business in Korea)一書的作者托馬斯·L·科伊納(Thomas L. Coyner)表示，「這個國家發展得如此之快，以至於人們大量地走捷徑，等於是坐等事故發生。」
韓國海事大學(Korea Maritime and Ocean University)航海學教授金昌傑（Kim Chang-je，音）表示，就船運業而言，這樣的指責似乎符合實情。他說，「我們設立了和全球規範類似的安全規範和機制，但卻執行不力。『歲月號』暴露了韓國船運業的所有問題。」
他和其他專家指出了一大堆問題，他們表示，正是這些問題破壞了「歲月」號的安全保障。他們指出的問題之一是，船員里有幾名合同工，他們對船隻的熟悉程度可能不如正式員工。
調查人員還表示，「歲月號」所屬企業清海鎮船運公司(Chonghaejin Marine)添加卧艙艙位的決定很可能削弱了船體在傾斜後恢復平衡的能力。
韓國檢驗機構韓國船級社(Korea Register of Shipping)曾建議清海鎮船運公司減少載貨量，增多壓艙水，以抵消船體穩定性的損失，然後才批准了該公司的船體設計改造申請。然而，反對派議員金永祿（Kim Young-rok，音）周二表示，「歲月號」離開仁川時載有3608噸貨物，是建議最大載貨量的三倍。清海鎮船運公司的審計數據顯示，該公司越來越依賴貨運收入，為的是彌補不斷下降的客運收入。
檢方正在調查「歲月號」是否裝載了足夠的壓艙水，以平衡額外的貨物重量。周二被捕的兩名大副之一對記者表示，當他在船傾斜後嘗試調正船體時，壓艙水「不起作用」。
檢方於周二搜查了韓國船級社的總部，並禁止清海鎮船運公司的負責人和擁有該公司的家族離境。
另一個業已查明的事實是，船長把船交給了最缺乏經驗的大副，由後者操控船隻通過一段因水流湍急而聞名的航道，此舉極有可能違反了韓國航運章程。章程規定，在繁忙或危險水域，船長應該親自控制船隻。
專家表示，以上問題之外，「歲月號」還沒有按照長途夜航的常例多配一名船長，以便兩人在甲板室里倒班。這艘船的主船長正在休假。
專家表示，他們懷疑，「歲月號」的某些問題是因安全標準執行鬆懈引起的，鬆懈的原因則是韓國海洋漁業部(Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries)、韓國航運協會(Korea Shipping Association)和航運公司之間的關係。
航運協會是一個遊說團體，為航運公司服務，受航運公司的資助。不過，它也擔負著核查船隻安全措施的職責，比如船上裝載的貨物是否恰當、是否能保持平衡。除此之外，許多海洋漁業部的高官都會在退休之後加入該協會，而該部本應監督航運協會的執法情況。
韓國海事大學的另一名海事安全專家鄭胤哲（Jung Yun-chul，音）表示，「在航運協會變成獨立機構之前，我們根本不能指望安全規範得到充分的執行。」
翻譯：張薇、許欣
As Ferry Death Toll Rises, Hand-Wringing Over Tendency to Overlook Safety
April 23, 2014
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
A temporary morgue in Jindo, set up to identify victims of the sunken ferry Sewol. As of Tuesday night, the death toll had risen to 121, but 181 were still missing.為確認「歲月號」渡輪上的遇難者而在珍島建立的臨時停屍房。
JINDO, South Korea — As Navy divers recovered the bodies of dozens of teenagers drowned waiting for a rescue of their doomed ferry, South Korea has begun a national bout of hand-wringing over the country’s tendency to overlook safety precautions in its quest for economic success.
With a mounting list of errors that appeared to have contributed to the ferry disaster, maritime experts, the press and regular citizens venting their anger on social media have begun to question what they describe as inadequate safety precautions and often lax regulation of businesses.
- 查看大图Jean Chung for The New York TimesThe mother of one of the missing passengers from the ferry shows the photo of her daughter to another relative of the missing. Most of the missing are students from Danwon High School.
On Tuesday, an opposition lawmaker released data showing that the ship was carrying three times its recommended maximum cargo, though it remained unclear if that could have helped destabilize it.
In addition, President Park Geun-hye, who has been withering in her criticism of the crew, has also argued that cozy relations between regulators and shippers may have contributed to the catastrophe, one of South Korea’s worst in peacetime. The prime minister, meanwhile, cited specific problems that might have been addressed by better regulation, including suspicions that renovations to add more sleeping cabins made the ship top-heavy and more likely to keel over.
The country’s top newspapers reflected the growing sense of anger, and shock, over what they suggested was a lack of proper oversight. “Are we a safe society or a third-rate people?” read one editorial headline in the JoongAng newspaper. And the daily Dong-A newspaper ran an editorial titled “Cry Korea,” in which it argued that Ms. Park should live up to her campaign promise to run an “administration of safety.”
For years, South Koreans called their country “a land of disasters” after a lack of regulation or a cavalier attitude toward safety, or both, were at least partly blamed for a string of accidents.
In 1993, an Asiana Airlines jet slammed into a hill not far from the site of the ferry accident, killing 68 passengers. Later that year, an overloaded ferry sank, killing 292. In 1994, a bridge collapsed in Seoul, killing 32. In 1995, 101 died in a gas explosion, and 501 in the collapse of a department store in Seoul that was weakened after the owner violated building safety codes by adding a swimming pool at the top. Two years later, a Korean Air jet crashed in Guam, killing 228.
With no large-scale disaster reported since arson caused a subway fire that killed 192 people in 2003, South Korea appeared to have put its curse behind it — and the country appeared to have moved on from its culture of “ppali ppali,” or “hurry hurry,” loosely translated as a tendency to justify cutting corners to get work finished quickly.
Now, many Koreans are expressing shame at how far their country still needs to go to address safety concerns, adding to the grief and anger that has gripped the country since the accident last Wednesday.
On Tuesday, anger at the crew’s apparent missteps in the evacuation — and their abandonment of the ferry, the Sewol, as it sank with scores of people trapped inside — only grew as investigators said the crew was not even the first to notify the authorities that the ship was in trouble. The first call, they said, came from a high school student who called the police.
“Save us! We’re on a ship and I think it’s sinking,” the student is quoted as saying, according to the South Korean national news agency, Yonhap. The boy, identified only by his family name, Choi, is among the missing.
As of Tuesday night, the death toll had risen to 121, but 181 were still missing.
Analysts said the ferry accident appeared to be a reminder that South Korea did not shed its easy acceptance of loose regulatory enforcement even as it became a high-tech economic powerhouse flooding the world markets with Samsung smartphones. The culture of lax enforcement is such a given, experts say, that government officials consider working in public safety a second-rate job.
In South Korea, more than 31,000 people, including 3,000 students, die every year in accidents, accounting for 12.8 percent of the country’s total annual deaths, the highest rate among major developed nations.
Those accidents include everything from car accidents to fires, and it is unclear how much can be attributed to a lack of focus on safety. But there is a general acknowledgment in hypercompetitive South Korea that success is often measured by how quickly and cheaply a job is done, and that spending too much time and resources trying to follow rules is sometimes seen as losing a competitive edge.
“The country has grown so rapidly that a lot of shortcuts have been made, so that it’s waiting for an accident to happen,” said Tom Coyner, a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea and the author of “Doing Business in Korea.”
Kim Chang-je, a professor of navigation science at Korea Maritime and Ocean University, said the complaints appeared to be true of the ferry business. “We have the safety regulations and systems that were similar to global norms,” he said. “But they are not properly enforced. All the problems with the South Korean ferry business have come out in the Sewol case.”
He and other experts pointed out a host of issues they say undermined safety on the ferry, including that the crew included several contract workers, who might have been less familiar with the ship than a regular crew.
Investigators have also said the decision by the company that owned the ferry, Chonghaejin Marine, to add more sleeping cabins probably undermined the ship’s ability to regain its balance after tilting.
The Korea Register of Shipping, an inspection agency, approved the change to the ship’s design after advising Chonghaejin Marine to carry less cargo and more ballast water to compensate for the loss of stability. But on Tuesday Kim Young-rok, an opposition lawmaker, said that when the ship left Incheon, it carried 3,608 tons of cargo, three times the recommended maximum. The company’s audit data showed it has depended increasingly upon cargo to compensate for declining passenger revenues.
Prosecutors were investigating whether the Sewol did not carry enough ballast water to accommodate the extra cargo. One of the two first mates arrested on Tuesday told reporters that when he tried to right the ship after tilting, the ballast “didn’t work.”
Prosecutors raided Korea Register’s headquarters on Tuesday and barred the head of Chonghaejin Marine, as well as the company’s family owners, from leaving the country.
It has also become clear that the captain most likely violated national navigational guidelines when he left the ship in the control of the least experienced ship’s mate through a waterway notorious for its rapid currents. The guidelines stipulate a captain should be in control in busy or dangerous waters.
The Sewol also had no extra captain, as ships often do when they are on long overnight voyages so the two can take turns in the bridge, experts said. The ship’s main captain was on leave.
Experts say they suspect some of the problems with the ship resulted from lax execution of safety standards made possible by ties among the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Shipping Association and shipping companies.
The shipping association is a lobby for shipping companies and is financed by them. But it is also charged with inspecting ships for safety measures, such as a proper and balanced stowage of cargo. In addition, many senior officials from the ministry — which is supposed to oversee the association’s enforcement — also join the association after they retire.
“We will never be able to expect safety regulations to be properly enforced until the shipping association becomes independent,” said Jung Yun-chul, another maritime safety expert at Korea Maritime and Ocean University.
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