There are rumors that McCain suffered a loss of steering just before the collision, if so it may be an equipment malfunction at a critical time.
There are many redundancies for steering on these ships, they even have manual steering that they can relay from the bridge over coms.
It would cut down their maneuverability but they still would be better than a cargo ship. We have procedures for this, one is notifying everyone the area and setting your signal flags when you are in one of the most busy straights in the world.
Everyone knows that ship equipment failure is not an excuse. It is the Captain’s job to make sure his ship is seaworthy.