The captain of the Korean ferry that sank faces several criminal charges.

I don't know enough about ferry operations to judge how serious his alleged wrongs were. But it would be unjust to punish him more for these actions than they would punish another captain who did the same things without causing any loss of life.

Disasters happen when several errors and failures combine. Each of the individual errors happens often but usually does not cause a disaster. The error is equally culpable whether it leads to a disaster or not.

If we want crews to change practices and thus reduce the errors that could contribute to future disasters, we should take measures that are effective.