RO-RO: no safety review
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The prospect of longer ferry turnaround times receded this week after the Department of Transport confirmed that it will not order UK operators to weld up bow doors in the wake of the Estonia ferry disaster.
Three Baltic operators ordered their ferry doors to be welded up after a submarine camera confirmed the Estonia's doors had been ripped off in heavy seas.
The DOT ordered extra checks on British ships this week, but UK ferry operators do not plan to review safety standards beyond those already required by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Agreement.
The SOLAS standards are designed to increase a ship's ability to remain afloat if holed, and is calculated using a formula based on the ship's design. Its compliance with SOLAS is expressed as a percentage_ By I October ships had to achieve 70% or more: by 2007, all ferries must have reached 97%.
P&O Ferries, Britanny Ferries and Stena Sealink's vessels all comply with the 70% rating, with many in their fleets already exceeding this level.
The ferry companies are not planning to install internal bulkheads to prevent any water taken on board from slewing across the whole surface of the car decks to one side of the ship as it rolls.
This has been identified as a possible factor in the Estonia and Zeebrugge disasters.