Lessons from a Needless Collision

Extract

The lessons to be learnt from a collision are not necessarily proportional to the damage it has caused. The great catastrophes arouse passions which often hinder the use of reason; on the other hand, when there has been no loss of life and when material damage has been slight, the accident may be seen as a warning which it is possible to contemplate in a detached manner, to see how it might have been avoided and how similar or worse accidents might be averted in future. Such was the collision between the Placid, a 50,000 ton tanker in ballast, and the Tenacious, a cargo vessel of 4000 tons, laden, some years ago on a foggy day in the summer, between Le Havre and Barfleur. (Both names are fictitious to safeguard the anonymity of the companies involved.) The collision claimed no victims and the compensation amounted to 180,000 francs for the Placid and 90,000 francs for Tenacious.