“Mom, I’m sending this because I might not be able to say it later. I love you.” This message was received by the mother of a 18 year old student who was onboard the Sewol Ferry in South Korea in April.

“What’s going on? Son? Son?” the mother anxiously texted back. Nothing came back. This text conversation, along with many others, was later posted on Korean social media sites.

On the day that the ferry tragedy happened, parents who thought their children were on a school field trip found themselves rushing to the harbor, hoping and praying that their children would somehow escape the sinking boat. Hundreds of parents sobbed and wailed in anger as they saw coast guard divers pulling bodies out from the shipwreck. As the coast guard returned to the shore due to the heavy tides which threatened their safety, distraught parents angrily yelled at them to go back and rescue the missing children.

Once it was obvious that there was nothing that could be done and parents understood that their children were lost, Korean and international news channels showed footage of numbers of parents who were beyond heartbroken.

This sadness soon turned into anger when people realized that the entire tragedy was easily preventable and had been caused by pure carelessness. Numerous safety regulations had been breached and the ferry was overloaded with cargo, more than three times its limit, simply for the sake of making more money for the ship’s owner. In addition, the ship’s captain had been idling around and had allowed his inexperienced third mate to steer the ship. When the third mate made a dangerously sharp turn, causing the ship to capsize, the captain quickly escaped the ferry by himself, leaving his crewmates and passengers behind.

The sinking of the ferry should never have happened. The waters were not unusually rough that day, and there were no dangerous reefs or rocks around the ship’s route. The only reason this tragedy happened is the greed of the ship’s owner and the government officials. As investigations continue and uncover more and more disturbing evidence of the ineptitude and dishonesty of all parties involved, we can only hope that a valuable lesson has been learned and that another tragedy of this scale will never occur again.