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Indian Ferry Disaster

From Asia Pacific News: Posted: 01 May 2012 1313 hrs

India ferry disaster leaves 200 dead, missing

A ferry with some 250 passengers on board has sunk in a river in the Indian state of Assam (AFP Graphic)

GUWAHATI, India: Hopes dimmed on Tuesday of finding more survivors after an overcrowded ferry split in two and sank in northeast India, leaving more than 100 dead and around 100 missing.

Police said 105 bodies, including women and children, had been recovered so far from the fast-flowing waters of the Brahmaputra river in Assam state, where the ferry sank in a sudden storm late Monday afternoon.

Despite an operating capacity of 225, some 350 people were believed to be on the two deck boat when it broke up mid-river in torrential, pre-monsoon rains.

Police said some 150 were rescued or swam to safety. The ferry carried no lifeboats or lifebelts and the chances of picking up more survivors after a night in the water were remote.

From Times of India:

Deputy commissioner Kumud Chandra Kalita said about 25 people swam to safety after the double-decked ferry with over 300 people onboard was crossing the river from Dhubrighat when it capsized in the storm at 4.20pm.

The GCP event was set for six hours beginning at 4:20 pm (10:50 UTC) to include the early evening when the news of the disaster and rescue efforts spread. The result is Chisquare 21498.436 on 21600 df, for p = 0.687 and Z = -0.486.

Indian Ferry Disaster

It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny statistical effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish signal from noise. This means that every "success" might be largely driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect can be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of similar analyses.


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