China Real Time Report has posted a survivor’s account of the October 1st Hong Kong ferry disaster, in which 39 people died.
Ms. Cheng and her husband, Mr. Lui, 43, an employee at Hongkong Electric Co. for more than 10 years, took their two daughters on the passenger boat to view the Chinese national day fireworks, after winning a company lottery.
[…] People were orderly, they weren’t fighting for lifesavers. After taking two, I tried to go back inside the cabin, but I saw an old woman lying on the floor pleading for one of my rings.
I really felt like my life was at the crossroads. Do I give it to her? I didn’t even have time to think it through before I just gave her one. At this point, I was already touching the water.
Then I was quickly pulled deep under water. I think the fact that the other ferry drove away so quickly created some sort of whirlpool that pulled people under very fast. There was also a rope circling my neck, and I was afraid it would strangle me. All I could do at that point was pray. It took me a long time to swim back to the surface, where there was a lot of floating debris. I kept feeling like something was blocking me from getting my head back above the water. […]
