Are we supposed to be in shock? Or has shoddiness become the standard for investigations into major accidents so there is no need to feel perturbed?
An initial finding from a probe into what caused the Phoenix tour boat to sink and kill dozens of Chinese tourists off Phuket's coast in July indicated the vessel had not been built to standard.
This is an 11-million-baht double-decker weighing 287 gross tonnes we are talking about, not some small boat that works the canals. It's a seagoing vessel that is supposed to carry more than a hundred passengers, safely too, as it was properly registered and licensed.
Atiya Achakulwisut is a columnist, Bangkok Post.
How could such a public service vessel have so many inherent flaws that were never detected?
Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat recently revealed that the Phoenix was powered by an adapted engine from a 10-wheel truck, which posed a risk. Its water pipe was also found to be smaller than the standard required.
These sound like outrageous flaws although authorities are yet to determine what exactly caused the boat to sink. At first, they said the Phoenix's crew ignored storm warnings to stay ashore.
The Phoenix was carrying 89 tourists and 12 crew on a diving expedition when it capsized in a storm on July 5 killing 47 Chinese passengers. A salvage team raised the wreck from 45 metres under the water on Saturday.
The question is obvious. If the boat was that substandard, how could it be allowed to be in service?
According to reports on Manager Online, the Phoenix had a capacity to carry 120 passengers. It was registered and granted a licence to be used as a tour boat in September last year.
So what happened at that time? The registration and licensing authorities failed to notice that the boat was equipped with a truck engine? What about the undersized water pipe? Nobody noticed these seemingly obvious shortcomings?
Or is it a lack of follow-up inspection? Whatever the case, a failure is evident and it's one that requires a serious attention not just regarding the Phoenix but all forms of public transport.
According to Minister Weerasak, a further probe will be conducted to determine if the boat had other defects and who else should be held responsible for the accident. It's no doubt imperative that authorities get to the root cause of a tragedy said to be the main reason why Chinese arrivals into the country have fallen.
After the incident, the Chinese began to question Thailand's safety measures for tourists, and arrivals from the country fell 12% month-on-month in August and were down a further 15% in September.
It's no exaggeration to say that Thailand's tourism reputation, and revenue, won't be salvaged unless authorities get to the bottom of the Phoenix tragedy and ensure that all necessary safety measures have been put into place.
But that is not the only necessity. In determining what's wrong with the Phoenix on its ill-fated voyage, we have to come face to face with what's wrong with our country.
If the Phoenix had serious design flaws as reported, then whatever system that guaranteed its seaworthiness could be much more defective.
It's outrageous for the operator to fit a 120-person vessel with a truck engine, but authorities who turned a blind eye to it and let innocent tourists run a risk proven to be fatal could be more to blame.
We have to be as shocked at the Phoenix's defects as we are dismayed at our systemic failures to catch them. We have to wonder if corruption allowed these "irregularities'' to pass inspection. We must see how lacking we can be with law enforcement. And we must realise how tolerant we have been towards substandard services whether in public transportation or other areas.
This is definitely not just about the Phoenix. Look at the quality of our public roads, trains or buses. There was a major hullabaloo recently about a woman who fell to her death from the expressway after her broken-down car was hit by another vehicle driving on the hard shoulder. The incident immediately caused outrage over vehicles using the emergency lane.
But the uproar didn't last long enough, nor did it translate into corrective action. People who use the expressway regularly would know that the hard shoulder is treated as another lane by expressway drivers. Authorities even encourage people to use it. So that has become more or less a (sub)standard, among a list of many, that will contribute to further tragic accidents down the line.