The helmsman in charge of a tourist boat has been charged with manslaughter after a foreigner was killed and two others injured when it collided with another vessel off Koh Rong Samloem on Tuesday night.
The operator of the other boat was released without charge.
On Thursday, Preah Sihanouk province deputy police chief Kol Phally named the accused as 47-year-old Kong Ky.
The accident killed 35-year-old Romanian tourist Bogdan-Mihail Ciuca and injured two other foreigners, a man and a woman. The police charged Ky with manslaughter under Article 207 of the Criminal Code.
The charge was brought after Ky admitted his craft had collided with a boat belonging to a man named Morm Vy, which later sank, due to his vessel’s light not being bright enough.
“The suspect faces between one to three years in prison and a fine of between two million and six million riel. Police sent the suspect to the provincial court as legal procedures dictate,” Phally said.
He added that Vy, the operator of a family-owned tourist boat, was injured when Ky’s craft collided with his while carrying 18 people, 16 of them foreigners.
On Thursday morning, Vy told The Post that his family was seeking fishing vessels to help rescue his stricken boat, upon which his family’s livelihood depended. Compensation had yet to be discussed.
Vy’s brother-in-law Sat Huong, 22, a witness to the incident, said Ky was to blame for the collision, but he acted responsibly afterwards, trying his best to save everybody on board, otherwise all 18 passengers would have drowned.
