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THE British government has decided not to insist that roll-on roll-off
ferries have watertight bulkheads installed on their vehicle decks. But
Cecil Parkinson, the transport secretary, said this week that the International
Maritime Organisation should urgently consider specifying better safety
standards for ferries.

The announcement follows the publication this week of the report of
the Department of Transport’s steering committee on ferry safety, set up
after the Herald of Free Enterprise capsized outside Zeebrugge in 1987 killing
hundreds of people. The lack of watertight bulkheads on the vehicle deck
was said to have contributed to the disaster.

The committee considered watertight bulkheads but found ‘other devices
could prove equally or more effective . . . in consequence the committee
considers that it should not attempt to specify the use of any particular
devices or arrangements’. The report says that the choice of design should
be left entirely ‘to the designer and operator’.