It was established in Congressional hearings that the crew of the Valdiz was suffering extreme sleep deprivation. It was that, not alcohol, that caused the accident.

It is hard to get good crew for ships. Most normal, healthy people want to spend their lives with family and friends. Result - crews are understaffed and overworked.

When I watched Connie Chung (news reporter) hammering the question of drunkenness over and over, even though the response was always 'No, the captain wasn't drunk,' I wanted to spit on her.

Then the result of the Congressional hearings got a few lines in the back pages of the paper, weeks later.