Two passengers were knocked off a ferry when it collided with a sand dredging boat near the Arei Khsat dock in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district on Wednesday night.
Hean Thilay, 55, and an unidentified man fell into the Tonle Sap after the dredging boat heading south crashed into the side of their ship, according to Navy traffic police chief Pes Lim.
The remaining 40 to 50 passengers onboard were unharmed, he said.
Ms. Thilay was rescued by her son, Nguyen Young Choeung, also a passenger on the boat, who dove into the water and then waited with her until the two were rescued by another ferry. “If my son was not there I would have died in the water,” she said.
The other passenger was able to swim and made his way to shore on his own. Sok Chanthorn, who works at the dock, said the dredging ferry was moving very fast and without any headlights, while the passenger ferry had undertaken all the necessary safety precautions.
“The [dredging] ferry had no headlights and the passenger ship had [its signal lights on]. The ferry was driving very fast when it hit the boat in the middle.”
